The TV Ad Bureau (TVB) said cable-TV ratings fell this summer, reversing a trend from previous years. “Cable networks have moved swiftly over the last several years to introduce high-profile original series during the summer at a time when broadcast television networks are primarily offering repeat programming,” said Stacey Lynn Schulman, TVB chief research officer. “However, the audience for broadcast television in the summer season continues to significantly dwarf the audience for cable television’s first-run programming."
Community anchor institutions (CAIs) need far more bandwidth than the 4 Mbps the FCC proposed in its Connect America Fund plan for residential users, the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB) told Commissioner Ajit Pai (http://xrl.us/bntaup). SHLB asked the commission to require every CAF Phase I funding recipient to provide the CAIs in their regions with higher capacity bandwidth than 4 Mbps, “as a condition of receiving funding.” Such recipients should be entitled to get more than just the $775 per location they have been entitled to, SHLB said. CAF funding recipients should also be allowed to use funding for the one-time costs of building high-capacity, middle-mile networks to each community with an open interconnection policy, which would “reduce the backhaul costs of serving a community” and make it easier to provide last mile services, SHLB said. The remaining $185 million of Phase I funding, which has not been claimed, could be set aside to award grants to anyone who pledged to connect CAIs with a shared, high-capacity network, SHLB said.
Verizon Wireless plans to start offering 4G LTE service in 21 additional markets Oct. 18. They include: Chico/Oroville, Calif.; Waterville/Augusta, Maine; Marquette, Mich.; Brainerd and Fergus Falls/Alexandria, Minn.; Hattiesburg and Laurel, Miss.; Columbia, Mo.; Jamestown, N.Y.; Bend and Medford/Grants Pass, Ore.; Amarillo and Victoria, Texas; Aberdeen and Walla Walla, Wash.; and Morgantown, W.Va., the carrier said Tuesday. The carrier said it will also expand its 4G LTE coverage in 37 markets where the service is already available, including Detroit and Los Angeles. The carrier said in a news release it plans to begin offering 4G LTE coverage in more than 30 additional markets by the end of the year (http://xrl.us/bntaux).
CBS said it agreed to acquire Merlin Media’s WRXP(FM) New York for $75 million and changed its call letters to WFAN(FM). The station will simulcast CBS’s WFAN(AM) New York sports radio station, it said. CBS said it will begin operating the station under a local marketing agreement in late fall.
A “pure” numbers-based USF contribution methodology is still the FCC’s “best option” to reform the contribution system, the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee told advisers to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bntatu). It would let business users contribute their “fair share” while not unduly burdening consumers, and it would be easy to implement and monitor, Ad Hoc said. It said connections-based method is “viable” depending on the details of implementation: A broadened revenues-based system could improve the current problems but still has “inherent flaws” that “plague” the existing funding mechanism.
Univision will use Internet Broadcasting’s digital ad products services, the companies said. The deal will give Internet Broadcasting a role in ad creative design development for Univision’s digital advertisers. Internet Broadcasting will also provide ad trafficking services, campaign management and digital ad sales training and support for Univision.
Congress should “abolish” the regulatory silos of the 1996 Telecom Act, and unify telecom policy to reflect the convergence of wireline, wireless and Internet technology, Georgetown University Economics, Business and Public Policy Professor John Mayo said at a “Georgetown on the Hill” event Tuesday sponsored by the school. Traditional public utility style regulation of the telecom industry is “so last century,” he said. “I'm not suggesting an anarchist approach to telecommunications policy,” but the laws must be updated to “reflect modern realities of a well-functioning market,” he said. Congress should base any new regulation on “light touch approach” that has allowed the wireless and Internet industries to thrive, he said. If Congress does not act, the industry will see diminishing investment, spectrum shortages, higher prices and harm to consumers, he said. During the Q&A, Georgetown professor and ex-FCC Director of Technology Policy Michael Nelson wondered whether Congress could write clear a deregulatory law, or whether there would be an “intersector rivalry” that would stand in the way. Mayo said he thinks consumer and corporate interests are “aligned” right now in a way that could compel Congress to get this done.
Inmarsat’s IsatDock Pro docking stations were successfully installed at the Antarctic Polar Station in Russia. The stations are designed to “support accessing voice services via Bluetooth, RJ11/POTS [plain old TV service], handsfree speakerphone or the active privacy handset,” said Beam Communications, the Australia-based product manufacturer. The docks also provide phone charging, USB data ports and built-in ringer antennae, Beam said in a news release Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bntats).
The number of U.S. data centers declined 0.7 percent in 2009, said a report released Tuesday from International Data Corp. IDC said the decline, the first ever in the U.S., was triggered by the 2008 economic crisis and resulting data center closures. While the number of data centers declined that year, total data center capacity grew slightly more than 1 percent. Those trends have continued in the years since, reflecting a “major change” in the U.S. data center market, IDC said Tuesday in a news release. The changes are due to rapid growth in the number of applications, devices and digitization of unstructured data, IDC said. The data center market has also been influenced by a shift toward the cloud model for application, platform and infrastructure delivery, the industry research firm said. It said these factors will continue to result in a “slow but steady” decline in the number and size of smaller internal data centers and limited growth in large internal data centers. Very large data centers owned by service providers will grow at a faster rate, IDC said. It forecast the total number of data centers in the U.S. will decline to 2.89 million in 2016, from 2.94 million in 2012. Data center capacity will rise to more than 700 million square feet in 2016, from 611.4 million square feet in 2012, IDC said (http://xrl.us/bntase).
Hulu and Viacom said they expanded their licensing agreement. The new deal will let Hulu Plus subscribers access Nickelodeon shows. The deal will also bring some programming from Viacom’s Tr3s network to Hulu’s Latino section, they said. As before, current episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will be available on Hulu.com and on Hulu Plus. Other Viacom shows will be available 21 days after they air on TV.