Arbitron Q1 revenue rose 5.5 percent to $106.4 million from a year earlier as the company increased rates for products including the Portable People Meter radio listener ratings service, it said Thursday (http://xrl.us/bm4hei). Profit rose 9.6 percent to $17.8 million. “Digital radio remains a key priority as we continue our work to follow radio onto its new digital platforms” to “quantify this growing audience segment,” CEO William Kerr said. Arbitron expects 2012 revenue to increase 5-7 percent.
The FCC fined KXDZ(FM) Templeton, Calif., $10,000 for not keeping up quarterly lists of programming aired for parts of 2007, 2008 and 2009, said an Enforcement Bureau forfeiture order released Thursday to Mapleton License. It was given 30 days to submit a sworn statement that the station’s public inspection file is complete (http://xrl.us/bm4hct).
NTIA would receive $45.6 million in FY 2013 under a House appropriations bill approved Thursday. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science adopted the appropriations bill by voice vote. The amount for NTIA is $1.4 million less than President Barack Obama and the subcommittee’s Senate counterpart proposed (CD April 18 p11). But it’s the same as the FY 2012 enacted level for NTIA. The total bill for Commerce, Justice and Science was $51.1 billion, down $1.6 billion from the FY 2012 enacted level and $731 million below Obama’s request. It provides $7.7 billion total for the Commerce Department, $96 million more than the FY 2012 level. The FY 2013 appropriations bill places a “greater focus” on cybersecurity, said the House subcommittee’s Chairman Frank Wolf, R-Va. “It includes a significant focus on expanding the FBI’s cyber-security efforts and on protecting U.S. networks from foreign espionage and cyber-attacks,” he said. The bill provides funding for cybersecurity research and development. The National Institute of Standards and Technology would receive $830 million, $4 million more than the Senate proposal and $79 million more than the FY 2012 level. The National Science Foundation got $7.3 billion, which is $299 million more than the FY 2012 level but $41 million below Obama’s request. Also Thursday, the full Senate Appropriations Committee voted 28-1 to approve the Commerce bill approved by its subcommittee Tuesday"This bill makes our country safer and economy stronger by investing in cybersecurity, cyber workforce development and cyber jobs,” said Chair Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science. “Investments in the 2013 CJS spending bill will help create jobs in cybersecurity that will never leave this country.” The bill next moves to the Senate floor, but no date for consideration has been set.
The FCC should expand its cramming rules to cover wireless and VoIP as well as wireline calls, consumer groups said in a letter to the three commissioners. “Cramming can result in an undue financial burden upon the constituencies represented by our organizations and consumers across America,” the groups said. “Technology should continue to flourish and grow, but not at the hefty expense of consumers. Thus, not only should the FCC provide stronger consumer protections against cramming, it is especially critical the FCC extend cramming rules to wireless and VoIP providers, especially considering the high rate of adoption among consumers.” The letter notes that 82 percent of Americans own cellphones, and the use of VoIP is also on the rise. “The FCC, FTC, Congress and various States have recognized cramming as a serious problem, especially for landline telephone service,” the groups said. “The same abuses that occur on traditional landline services can easily occur on VoIP services. Moreover, there is evidence that cramming on mobile devices will be a larger problem for wireless users.” The letter was signed by Consumers Union, AARP, the Center for Media Justice, IDEPSCA, NASUCA, the National Consumer Law Center on behalf of their low-income clients, National Consumers League, Utility Reform Network and Consumer Federation of America.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) awarded a contract to Global Tel Link (GTL) to eliminate contraband cellphone use by inmates in the state, the agency said. Under the contract, GTL will also provide the inmate/ward telephone system for inmates to make domestic and international calls from an authorized phone network. CDCR expects to have the network fully operational by the end of the year, with other state institutions to follow. GTL will be responsible for all implementation costs. The company said its managed access technology uses a “secure cellular umbrella” over a specified area blocking unauthorized cellular communication transmissions, like emails, texts, phone calls or Internet access.
Internet ad revenue reached $31 billion in 2011, up 22 percent from 2010, the Interactive Advertising Bureau said. Revenue in Q4 2011 was the “best-ever” at $9 billion, a 20 percent increase over the same period in 2010, IAB said. Mobile saw the fastest growth hitting $1.6 billion in 2011, up from $600 million the previous year. Digital video recorded a 29 percent increase to reach $1.8 billion last year. Search revenue totaled $14.8 billion in 2011, an increase of 27 percent over 2010, IAB said.
T-Mobile representatives met with FCC officials Monday to further elaborate on their concerns about Verizon Wireless’s buy of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox (See separate report in this issue). “In particular, they discussed the need for the Commission to update the spectrum screen in evaluating Verizon Wireless’ proposed acquisition of spectrum from SpectrumCo and Cox in order to eliminate its chief flaw: the fact that it treats all mobile broadband spectrum as equal even though low-band spectrum is in fact significantly more valuable for providing wireless broadband services,” said a filing by T-Mobile (http://xrl.us/bm4ehg). T-Mobile also raised concerns that Verizon “has not used its AWS spectrum in the six years it has held the licenses” while “the instant transactions would add additional AWS spectrum to Verizon Wireless’ inventory and keep this scarce spectrum from being used by its competitors."
A statewide effort to crack down on distracted driving in Minnesota was scheduled to start Thursday, said the state Department of Public Safety. Under a distracted driving law enacted in 2008, drivers can talk on a cellphone but can’t text, check email or access the Internet while driving or at a stoplight. Drivers under 18 or those with a probationary license can’t use a phone while driving unless there’s an emergency.
The case of Janet Jackson’s exposed breast is back before the Supreme Court. The FCC asked the high court to review a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that threw out the $550,000 fine against CBS over the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that led to the term “wardrobe malfunction” entering the popular lexicon. The 3rd Circuit rejected the FCC’s rationale for fining CBS after the Supreme Court remanded an earlier decision that went against the commission on procedural grounds (CD Nov 3 p3). In its petition for a writ of certiorari (http://xrl.us/bm4d5r), attorneys for the FCC and U.S. solicitor general asked the high court to wait to rule until it rules on a separate indecency case involving the commission’s fleeting-expletive policy. Oral argument in that case, known as Fox II, was held earlier this year (CD Jan 11 p1). “In resolving the parties’ dispute concerning the adequacy of the notice given to the regulated parties, the Court in Fox II may analyze the history of the Commission’s indecency enforcement in the contexts of both expletives and images,” the petition said. “In particular the Court may consider the guidance available to ABC at the time it broadcast the nude images of the NYPD Blue episode” that prompted consumer complaints, it said. The court’s analysis of the fair-notice claims in that case could bear directly on whether the 3rd Circuit’s opinion was correct, the petition said.
Comcast and its NBCUniversal aren’t trying to “modify or rewrite” an FCC condition in last year’s order letting Comcast purchase a controlling stake in NBCU, the companies said. They said that’s “contrary to suggestions by various commenters” on the two companies’ request to change terms of a protective order so some executives at Comcast and NBCUniversal can see deals online video distributors (OVDs) have with other programmers when an OVD seeks to use a benchmark condition in the FCC order. The change “merely seeks a procedural clarification to enable efficient compliance with the condition -- to the benefit of OVDs -- while safeguarding the legitimate interests of content owners,” Comcast and NBCUniversal said in reply comments (http://xrl.us/bm4d6h). They were the only replies posted in docket 10-56 as of Wednesday afternoon. Broadcast, cable and film programmers have opposed Comcast and NBCUniversal’s request (CD April 5 p4). “At bottom, the commenters’ real objection relates to the wisdom of those policy decisions, not the Request,” the reply said.