Cellphone use by golf fans became a big issue at the Jack Nicklaus Memorial Tournament over the weekend, according to various reports. Golfer Phil Mickelson left the tournament Thursday, after shooting a 79, complaining about clicking from cellphone cameras. Nicklaus himself questioned Saturday how much tournament organizers could do to clamp down on people taking photos with their cellphones. “What do you want, the Gestapo out there?” the namesake of the tournament asked, according to RealClearSports. “It’s kind of ridiculous. You've got 30,000, 40,000 people out there."
Radio is poised for a big transition as Internet technology becomes more ubiquitous in the places people listen to the radio, such as the car, the living room and kitchen, said Pandora Chairman Joe Kennedy, speaking at the DBL Investors conference Monday. “We believe we're actually at a tipping point in the delivery of radio from broadcast to Internet,” he said. “We've seen most of the major media go through this transition but radio is relatively late … precisely because where radio is consumed, the Internet is just now reaching those places.” Though Pandora is taking a growing share of total music listening, the vast majority still occurs on FM and AM radio, “which we see as highly vulnerable to this new form of listening that we are able to provide,” he said.
Verizon said its FiOS video service began carrying another 10 Spanish-language channels in HD, increasing its total to 75 in some markets. Of the 10 new networks, nine are provided by Olympusat Inc., the telco said Monday. The 10th is Multimedios TV, which originates in Monterrey, Mexico.
Actors union SAG-AFTRA said it reached a tentative deal with the major record labels on a contract covering dancers and performers in music videos. The three-year deal lays “the groundwork for a cooperative partnership with the industry that will benefit members throughout the term of the agreement,” said SAG-AFTRA National Director David White. The unions said the two sides reached a breakthrough in talks, begun about a year ago, in early May.
Oak Hill Capital Partners and GI Partners agreed to buy WaveDivision Holdings from current owner Sandler Capital Management. The buyers are working with the company’s senior management on the deal, said WaveDivision, which sells cable and broadband services under the brand Astound. It expects the deal to be completed this year.
"Time is running out” for Congress to pass cybersecurity legislation, said Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., during a cybersecurity conference Monday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Langevin, a co-founder of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, said gridlock over cybersecurity mandates for owners and operators of critical infrastructure “has precluded passage of a comprehensive cybersecurity package” and “prevented the consideration of any significant cybersecurity legislation in the Senate.” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., also spoke at the event and said cyberattacks and online piracy “have put the United States on the losing end of the largest illicit transfer of wealth in the history of mankind.” Whitehouse added that the U.S. needs to develop rules of engagement in cyberspace. “At a minimum I can say that clear executive policies and procedures, and vigilant congressional oversight, are required.” Whitehouse touted his work with Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., on the Cyber Security Public Awareness Act (S-813) as a means to increase the dissemination of cyberthreat information to the public. “The government exacerbates the public awareness problem by over-classifying information relating to cybersecurity. … Some information must be classified, for obvious reasons, but we nonetheless can do much better.”
LightSquared stressed its intention to deploy a nationwide 4G wireless broadband network, during a meeting with Angela Giancarlo, chief of staff to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. The commission has some legal and policy responses it can take “to address the inability of a limited number of GPS receivers to operate properly in spectrum that has not been allocated for GPS use,” the company said in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnab93). It said the actions proposed in the commission’s Feb. 15 public notice revoking its ancillary terrestrial component “are disproportionate and inappropriate, especially in light of the current administrative record."
Free Press wants FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai to travel outside the Beltway for workshops, meetings and hearings. The new FCC member and his colleagues should go to field hearings on the media ownership rulemaking notice, “following the good example for public engagement at the commissioner level that was set during the previous quadrennial review,” the nonprofit reported officials told Pai. “Changes to the current newspaper-broadcast cross ownership ban still are not justified by the record.” The agency should “move expediently to decisions” on licensing new low-power FM stations, and “provide sufficient time for potential LPFM applicants to organize before the Commission opens a filing window,” the nonprofit that backs low-power radio said. The commission should “strike the right balance between exclusive use and unlicensed use across the spectrum,” which is a “resource” that will be brought to the market “by increasingly smart radios” more quickly than auctioning frequencies, the group said. “The Commission should foster sharing of the 1755-1850 MHz band, as well as other federal and commercial bands.” The ex parte filing was posted Friday to docket 09-182 (http://xrl.us/bnab57).
Lawmakers are expected Wednesday to discuss FCC radio ownership caps, authorization of low-power FM stations, mobile FM receiver mandates and radio performance royalties, said a memo Monday by the majority staff of the House Communications Subcommittee (http://xrl.us/bnaboo). Invited witnesses for the hearing on how audio consumption has been affected by advances in communications services and consumer electronics equipment are: RIAA Chairman Cary Sherman; CEA President Gary Shapiro; Emmis Communications Chairman Jeff Smulyan; National Music Publishers’ Association President David Israelite; Commonwealth Broadcasting Corp. President Steven Newberry; CTIA Vice President Christopher Guttman-McCabe; Pandora Chief Strategy Officer and Founder Tim Westergren; and Ben Allison, governor of the New York chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
SES signed an agreement with 2Day Telecom expanding 2Days’s reach “to meet growing needs of GSM backhaul services throughout Kazakhstan,” the companies said Monday. They said the telecom company increased capacity utilization on SES’ NSS-12 satellite “to deliver mobile communication services over challenging mountainous terrain in Kazakhstan.” The satellite’s high-powered dedicated beam provides excellent coverage over Kazakhstan, “allowing us to expand our services into new regions within the country,” 2Day said.