Cox said its customers can watch more TV programming on more devices following recent carriage agreements. Expanded access to Disney’s networks, the NFL, and CBS bring the total number of Cox’s “second screen” network options to more than 90 through its TV Online service, it said.
ViaSat received a $52 million government contract to provide broadband airborne satellite services. The one-year contract is a renewal for services already provided using ViaSat ArcLight technology established in 2009 “to support military missions for the War on Terror,” ViaSat said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bn7cyu). The government agency wasn’t disclosed. The satellite company’s mobile broadband systems provide “high-speed, beyond line-of-sight communications for media-rich ISR [intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance], C2 [command and control] and other applications,” it said.
Mediacom said it has completed several carriage deals in recent months, including with NBCUniversal, TBS, Fox and the Big Ten Network. It also reached agreements with Azteca International, Multimedios and Olympusat to expand its Spanish-language programming options, it said. And it renewed retransmission consent agreements with “Capital, Citadel, Coronet, Local TV, Media General and Sinclair,” it said.
Qualcomm countered warnings from the Satellite Industry Association about the company’s proposal for a Next Generation Air-Ground Service in the 14-14.5 GHz band and asked the FCC to move forward on a notice of proposed rulemaking. SIA warned in a Dec. 11 ex parte presentation that Qualcomm’s proposed service could cause interference for Ku-band satellites (http://xrl.us/bn7cvt). “Updated calculations continue to show that a significant number of operational satellites would be subjected to excessive levels of interference from the Next-Gen AG system,” SIA said. “Qualcomm has closely reviewed the interference concerns raised by SIA and once again shows that there is no risk that the Next Generation Air-Ground Service will cause harmful interference to incumbent GSO FSS uplinks, nor is there any risk that the incumbent users of the 14.0 to 14.5 GHz band will cause harmful interference to the Next-Gen AG service,” Qualcomm said (http://xrl.us/bn7cxn).
House Intelligence Committee members approved the panel’s October report on security concerns with the Chinese-based telecom equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE, in an unanimous vote Thursday. The report strongly recommended that the U.S. government and American companies refrain from doing business with Huawei and ZTE because of what it said were the long-term security risks associated with them (CD Oct 10 p3). Following the vote, the report will now be submitted to the committee record. The vote was closed to reporters and the public because the report contains a classified annex with additional evidence from the investigation, a committee staffer told us. A Huawei spokesman said Thursday in an email statement the company’s business has not been impacted by the report as the committee’s investigation was “largely recognized for the political exercise that it was.” “For those with a legitimate interest in network reliability and cyber security, such matters are of the highest priority to Huawei and we remain committed to pushing a broader understanding of the true and universal cyber vulnerabilities that impact global networks and the need for real and effective industry-wide solutions to address them,” he said. ZTE had no comment.
The Entertainment Software Association sought to distance itself, in a news release Wednesday, from the elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn., and subsequent legislation proposed by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., to study the impact of videogame violence on children. The group, which represents videogame companies, said any study into the connection between the shootings and videogame violence must include the “years of extensive research that has shown no connection between entertainment and real life violence.” Rockefeller’s legislation aims to evaluate whether violent videogames and violent video programming cause children to act aggressively, has a disproportionately harmful effect on children prone to aggressive behavior, and has a direct and long-lasting impact on a child’s well-being, among other provisions (CD Dec 20 p15). Separately, a spokesman for the NAB said that, “given the events of the last week, a scientific study (as suggested in the Rockefeller bill) is appropriate.”
"The judicial branch is our Frodo,” said Fred Campbell, director of the Communications Liberty and Innovation Project at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (http://xrl.us/bn7cpt). Like the people of Middle Earth relied on the defenseless Frodo to protect them from evil by destroying the Ring of Mordor, Americans today rely on the judicial branch to protect them from an overzealous government by applying the First Amendment to mass communications in the Internet era, Campbell said. “Providing ISPs and search engines with First Amendment rights would prevent dangerous and unnecessary government interference with the Internet while permitting the government to protect Internet consumers within Constitutional bounds,” he said. Verizon took heavy criticism recently for arguing the net neutrality rules shouldn’t apply to it because ISPs have First Amendment rights.
The FCC should rapidly develop rules for the next round of Connect America Fund Phase I funding, Frontier and CenturyLink representatives told aides to FCC commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn Monday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bn7cdh). “Acting expeditiously will ensure that price cap carriers can quickly commence deploying broadband to thousands of unserved locations across America,” Frontier said.
The Telecommunications Industry Association’s Chief Technology Officer Council is developing recommendations to Congress on legislation that would support U.S. businesses’ growing network and data security needs. “Security breaches cost businesses billions of dollars each year, slow innovation and erode consumer confidence,” said Danielle Coffey, TIA vice president-government affairs, Thursday in a news release. “Our goal is to help policymakers understand the connection between security and competitiveness, and to encourage the development of policies that help U.S. businesses remain competitive in a global marketplace where security is essential to success.” McAfee Public Sector CTO Phyllis Schneck, who serves on the council, said in the same release: “The Internet has become one giant malware transport system, and the costs for businesses are enormous.” The CTO Council plans to make its recommendations in January, when the 113th Congress convenes, TIA said. One focus of the council’s recommendations will be the need for government support for technology research and development (http://xrl.us/bn7co6). TIA President Grant Seiffert sent a letter Tuesday to Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., urging them to retroactively extend the research and development tax credit to apply to 2012. “A failure to retroactively extend the credit would result in a significant curtailment of research & development activities in the coming months, with follow-on effects that will be felt for years,” Seiffert said (http://xrl.us/bn7cpa).
The U.K. has a strong copyright regime but it’s too rigid, the government said Thursday in a statement (http://xrl.us/bn7cge) on modernizing copyright. Copyright laws must be flexible in order to remove barriers to using protected works so innovation can flourish; modern to deal better with challenges of current and future technologies; and robust in ensuring there are appropriate incentives for creators and rights holders to keep investing in the U.K., it said. Following the May 2011 Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth and extensive consultation, officials said some laws get in the way of reasonable use of copyrighted works and must be changed. People should be allowed to make wider use of such works as long as rights owners are protected, the document said. The government will propose legislation next year to, among other things: (1) Allow people to copy content they've bought onto any medium or device they own, strictly for personal use. Content can’t be shared with others, but consumers will be able to copy to and from private online cloud services. (2) Make it easier for the education sector to use interactive whiteboards and similar technologies in classrooms to improve distance learning. (3) Create a general permission for quotation in news reporting of copyrighted works for any purposes as long as use of the particular quote is “fair dealing” and its source acknowledged. (4) Allow sound recordings, films and broadcasts to be copied for non-commercial research and private study purposes without permission from the copyright owner. The new laws are intended to become effective in October, the government said. Record labels are digital businesses and want consumers to be free to enjoy their music legally on all their devices, said British Phonographic Industry Chief Executive Geoff Taylor. BPI already licenses a range of online storage services, from Apple, Google, Amazon and others, he said. BPI backs a “sensible updating of copyright for the digital age” and will review the details of the legislative proposals when they emerge to ensure that they support licensing of new services and don’t hurt the country’s creative sector, he said.