The Parents Television Council criticized MTV for airing a reality show Tuesday in which pop star Ke$ha apparently drank her own urine. PTC Director of Public Policy Dan Isset said in an interview Wednesday that the episode of Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life was only rated TV-PG, despite its extreme content. “Can somebody explain to me where the market demand is for watching pop stars drink their own urine?” said Isset. He said the incident bears out PTC’s position that there should be more consumer choice in cable. “The issue here is that tens of millions of families are being forced to subsidize content like this just to get access to other things,” Isset said. PTC President Tim Winter criticized the cable industry for opposing “Cable Choice,” and said recent reports of business losses and falling subscribership show that cable’s business model is failing. “We should all have the ability to choose and pay for only the channels we want to watch, but the cable industry won’t let that happen without a fight,” said Winter in a news release. He said recent legislation introduced by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is evidence that the rules may soon change, and that outrage over Ke$ha’s show could further that cause. “We hope that this episode will drive forward the needed change that consumers are seeking,” said Winter. MTV declined to comment.
Much of TiVo’s sales growth is now coming from distribution deals with cable operators, Tara Maitra, general manager-content and media sales, said at the Streaming Media East conference in New York Wednesday. She cited the deal that TiVo recently signed with Atlantic Broadband to start offering its DVR to 250,000 subscribers across seven states in the U.S. (CD May 22 p20). TiVo now has deals with 10 U.S. cable operators and at least three outside the U.S., said Maitra. There is “so much content” available to consumers now, but they still don’t “necessarily have the best way to find it” all, she said. The “real challenge for companies” providing content across multiple platforms is the ability to offer a superior “user experience” and search functionality, she said. Many consumers are looking for a “one-stop shop” for content, said Meghann Erlhoul, vice president-analytics and research at online services company Trendrr. “Everything will be migrated to one screen” eventually, but whether consumers opt to make that one screen a tablet, a smart TV or some other device remains to be seen, she said. Time Inc. sees Facebook as a “viable place” for video content and it has used the social networking service for its video and plans to continue doing that, said J.R. McCabe, senior vice president-video. Time is looking at how to use Twitter to promote video also, but “I'm not sure” that users of that service want to use Twitter for long-form video, he said. Eighty-eight percent of tablet owners are watching video on a regular basis, said Rob Gelick, CBS Interactive Entertainment general manager-digital platforms, during an earlier keynote speech at the conference. Many tablet owners are using tablets to view long-form videos, he said. His company had been afraid of “cannibalization” of its content with mobile devices, but many young people are watching more TV now because they've accessed TV programs on mobile devices, he said. CBS has had the No. 1 network website for the past four years, and one way it’s been able to achieve that has been its enthusiastic use of digital platforms as companions for its TV shows including Hawaii Five-O and The Medium, he said. A recent episode of Hawaii Five-O allowed viewers to select one of three different endings in real-time and all those versions were also made available for them to view online after the show aired, he said. The most popular ending among the votes at CBS.com and on Twitter was selected to air live during the show. Page views on CBS.com soared 200 percent as a result of that initiative, he said.
One California bill that proposes funding broadband adoption and access for low-income individuals would be good with certain amendments, said California Public Utilities Commission staff in a memo slated for a commission meeting Thursday (http://bit.ly/16OPaCi). The memo discussed Assembly Bill 1299, in the Appropriations Committee, which would move as much as $20 million from the California Advanced Services Fund Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account to support connecting public housing to broadband networks and shifting $5 million over to adoption programs for such housing. The bill would add to the CPUC’s workload, staff said, creating the need for additional positions amounting to just under $150,000 in annual commission costs. “The CPUC would have to promulgate rules and regulations for program implementation and allocation of the funds to the targeted housing communities, possibly including a public process to design the program,” the memo said. “Once these rules and regulations are in place, the CPUC can then accept applications from eligible entities.” But the bill would create broader, difficult-to-quantify benefits for the roughly 300,000 publicly subsidized housing units in the state, it said. CPUC staff said they support the bill if it clarifies the use of the phrase housing units, its reference to federal poverty guidelines that may not fit with state ones, the level of broadband service that would warrant using the funds and verification that the owners of the housing units in question haven’t denied right of access.
CiG Wireless said it agreed to buy at least 30 cell towers from Southern Tower Antenna Rental (STAR) for $13.5 million. Along with the 30 already built towers, CiG will also receive right of first refusal for the next 30 towers STAR builds. CiG said Wednesday it plans to close the deal as soon as possible following completion of due diligence. CiG “will be pursuing additional expansion of our tower portfolio as quality opportunities are identified,” CEO Paul McGinn said in a statement (http://bit.ly/1a7ps8U).
The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on North American Numbering Council (NANC) requests for clarification of use of passcodes for “non-simple ports and local number portability provisioning flows,” it said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/184L9d4). The commission had adopted “provisioning flows” in 2010 that included a one-business day porting interval for “simple ports” of a subscriber’s phone number from one provider to another, the bureau said. In adopting that process, the commission said the new provider need not supply a carrier-assigned passcode for the account in order to obtain the customer service record. NANC seeks clarification that the process applies not just to simple ports, but to all ports, which would prohibit the use of a carrier-initiated passcode for any porting request. NANC also seeks clarification on the rules that apply for cancellations and disconnections. Comments on NANC’s proposals are due June 5 in docket 07-244.
Verizon is seeking confidential status of the wire center boundary mapping data it’s submitting to the FCC (http://bit.ly/168RHYv). If Verizon’s response isn’t granted, the telco said it wants all the data and copies returned. “These shapefiles contain proprietary information Verizon has obtained via a licensing agreement with a third-party, TomTom North America,” Verizon said. “The parties’ license agreement prohibits Verizon from disclosing TomTom’s information without TomTom’s written consent.” TomTom gave limited consent to let Verizon comply with the FCC’s order seeking study area data, but only if Verizon “takes measures to protect TomTom’s proprietary data from any further disclosure,” the telco said. “Given the sensitive nature of the shapefiles for which confidentiality is requested and the prospect of serious competitive harm, Verizon requests that confidential treatment apply indefinitely.”
Samsung wants the FCC Media Bureau to push through an expedited waiver of analog tuner rules in time for its Smart Media Player set-top box to hit store shelves this holiday selling season, it said in a petition filed with the commission on Tuesday (http://bit.ly/18iE1HI). “Intended for use on digital cable systems, the Smart Media Player has no need for an analog tuner,” said Samsung. “It would be unfair to consumers to drive up the cost of the product and reduce energy efficiency to satisfy a rule that no longer is necessary or in the public interest.” Samsung said a delay in getting the waiver could keep the Smart Media Player out of stores until 2014, which it called “an unnecessary wait that would serve no purpose.” To get the waiver in time, Samsung suggested that the bureau expand the reach of a pending analog tuner waiver request by TiVo (http://bit.ly/10M98Fk) to include the Smart Media Player. The TiVo request was filed in February, and had received no comments in opposition by the time its comment period ended April 8. Samsung also suggested the bureau establish “an expedited approach” to analog tuner waiver processing, or immediately place the company’s request on public notice with a shortened comment period. Samsung said speeding up the analog tuner waiver request process is merited “in light of the demonstrated lack of concern regarding waiver of the analog tuner requirement."
Clearwire said its board and the board’s special committee approved Sprint Nextel’s revised offer to buy full control of the company, and recommend shareholders vote for the deal. Sprint submitted its “best and final offer” for Clearwire Tuesday, revising its bid to $3.40 per share for a total of about $2.5 billion (CD May 22 p17). The revised offer, “when compared with other potential transactions reasonably available to the Company at this time, is the most favorable potential transaction to the Company’s unaffiliated stockholders,” Clearwire said in a Wednesday news release (http://bit.ly/10mjm07). The company also rescheduled its shareholder vote on the revised deal to May 31, saying a scheduling conflict would prevent the company from holding the vote May 30 as previously announced.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission wants a third-party administrator of its state universal service fund by July. The regulator issued a request for proposals (http://bit.ly/194H3kl) with a deadline of June 7, looking for either an individual or organization to manage the fund and serve as what it calls the fund’s “financial hub.” The manager “is responsible for collecting pro rata contributions based on telecommunications service providers’ intrastate end-user telecommunications retail revenues, at a rate set by the OCC, and depositing these revenues into the OUSF,” said the RFP. “The Manager will also distribute money from the OUSF on the first of each month to telecommunications carriers certificated [sic] in the State of Oklahoma.” The manager won’t be able to advocate telecom positions unrelated to USF before the commission, the RFP said. The contract will last a year, with options for four one-year extensions.
The FCC Media Bureau issued procedures for noncommercial educational broadcasters to get approval for NCE fundraising related to Monday’s tornado around Moore, Okla. The agency bars NCEs from on-air fundraising not for the station, a public notice Tuesday night said. Public broadcasters had disagreed whether an agency proposal to allow such fundraising without waivers should be adopted, and work by bureau staff on an order was delayed beyond what was expected by NPRM supporter National Religious Broadcasters (CD Feb 4 p8). “Waivers have been issued for a specific fundraising program or programs, or for discrete and limited station appeals for periods which generally do not exceed several days” around events including hurricane relief, the notice said (http://bit.ly/168PI6q). The agency has approved one such waiver for this week’s relief effort, it said. Stations informally seeking such approval should email bureau staff information on how long the proposed fundraising will last, where money will be donated and “whether the fundraiser will be part of the licensee’s regularly scheduled pledge drive or fundraising effort,” the notice said.