WebHopper, Clear Channel’s foray into datacasting via digital television, is apparently not the only system under development by media companies pursuing the digital convergence gold rush.
iBlast, a DTV datacasting system cooperatively developed and funded by a consortium of several big media firms (including the Tribune Company, Gannett Company, Cox Broadcasting, The Washington Post Company, The McGraw-Hill Companies, The New York Times, Emmis Communications, Bonneville International, and Journal Broadcast Group, among many others), has been in the testing stage for the last 18 months in more than a half-dozen markets around the country. iBlast’s management boasts of extensive experience with other media conglomerates like News Corp., Viacom, Disney, and Sony being among the most notable. Continue reading “WebHopper, Meet iBlast”
Category: Media Policy
Evil Empire to Roll Out ISP?; Stock Market Sponsors Rumsfeld Show
We’ve been keeping tabs on a little-publicized project that Clear Channel has been testing in Cincinnati: offering internet access via digital television. The project, first dubbed the “Delta V Internet Accelerator,” offered 256kbps download speeds to residential subscribers in the Cincinnati area by sending data to subscribers’ computers via a sideband on WKRC‘s new DTV signal.
Clear Channel owns or controls nearly 40 television stations around the country, and it appears that the company is preparing to launch its ISP service nationwide. Delta V has been re-branded as WebHopper, its website has been redesigned, and a “Business”-level 768kbps service class has been added. Continue reading “Evil Empire to Roll Out ISP?; Stock Market Sponsors Rumsfeld Show”
FCC Gives Entercom "Bonus" AM Station in Kansas City: A Sign of Things to Come?
In a little-publicized ruling on November 20, The FCC gave Entercom a special waiver involving its expanded AM band radio station in Kansas City. The waiver is disturbing on several levels. But first, some history:
The AM broadcast band used to span from 540 to 1600 kHz. In 1997, the FCC adopted a rulemaking expanding the upper end of the AM band to 1705 kHz. Over the years leading up to this, the FCC had gradually relaxed interference and channel spacing rules for AM stations, leading to lots of interference, especially at night, when some AM stations must reduce power levels or sign off completely. Continue reading “FCC Gives Entercom "Bonus" AM Station in Kansas City: A Sign of Things to Come?”
FMC Rebuts FCC; Miscellaneous Piracy Afoot
The Future of Music Coalition, a group of independent musicians and socially-conscious inside-the-Beltway lobbyists, released a study today calling into question the FCC’s official reports on the effects of deregulation on the radio industry. FMC’s study uses a statistical analysis of radio industry ownership trends and the playlists of radio formats, coupled with a small public survey, to paint a significantly different picture of the state of radio than the FCC’s analysis.
According to the report, the idea of judging diversity of voices on the airwaves by the number of program formats available is absurd. Some formats overlap in their choice of music – some by as much as 76% – while in many markets there is quite a bit of format redundancy (two stations that basically play the same stuff). And when it comes to news, four companies program all the stations that two-thirds of Americans listen to for news.
Among survey respondents, an overwhelming majority favor localism over cluster-programmed stations, think there’s too much advertising on the radio now, and want the new low-power FM service expanded. Continue reading “FMC Rebuts FCC; Miscellaneous Piracy Afoot”
Once on the Short List for FCC Commissioner, Now Clear Channel Lobbyist
Andrew Levin, currently the top adviser to the ranking Democrat congresscritter on the House Energy and Commerce Committee (the body with the most power over media regulation), is leaving government service to work for Clear Channel Communications.
Levin was once considered a front-runner for a seat on the Federal Communications Commission as one of its two Democrats. Instead, he’ll be opening up a Clear Channel lobbying office in Washington, where he’ll serve as “Senior Vice President for Government Relations.” Continue reading “Once on the Short List for FCC Commissioner, Now Clear Channel Lobbyist”
FCC To Public on Media Review: Screw Your Interest
Last month, a coalition of consumer advocacy, labor and professional performance groups banded together to petition the Federal Communications Commission to extend the time for the public to comment on a massive rulemaking that threatens to let today’s large media conglomerates get even bigger.
The coalition sought an additional three to six months to collect public input on the proposed hyper-consolidation effort and also requested access to the data the FCC used to produce a dozen reports which are (surprise!) mostly in favor of allowing more media consolidation. Continue reading “FCC To Public on Media Review: Screw Your Interest”
Multiple Skirmishes @ the FCC
Lots of activism in the form of paper-filing is taking place right now at the Federal Communications Commission.
A broad coalition of consumer rights, labor, and media democracy groups – representing both people working within and outside the media industry – have filed a petition to extend the FCC’s public comment deadline on its proposal to radically overhaul media ownership rules. The current comment deadline is December 2 – the FCC only planned to give the public a 90-day window in which to comment on this massive proposal – the coalition wants the comment period extended until April. Continue reading “Multiple Skirmishes @ the FCC”
Behind the Numbers @ the FCC Enforcement Bureau
At its October 10 meeting, the Commission’s decision to approve a standard for digital radio drew the headlines. But there were three items on the meeting’s agenda, one of which was the Enforcement Bureau’s release of its yearly Progress Report.
We’ve condensed the microradio-related enforcement news from the presentation and assembled a special report on what was revealed. My favorite highlight involves the Bureau’s number-fudging on enforcement actions finally catching up with it: the report claims fewer “pirate radio” enforcement actions than previous agency statements suggest. The discrepancy is not gigantic, but large enough to be noteworthy. Continue reading “Behind the Numbers @ the FCC Enforcement Bureau”
FCC Admits Ignorance on Digital Radio, Adopts Standard Anyway
It took only 14 minutes today for the Federal Communications Commission to dramatically decide the future of radio broadcasting.
The FCC adopted a Report and Order authorizing the rollout of digital radio. The vote allows radio stations to immediately install In-Band On-Channel (IBOC)-based transmission equipment and, upon notifying the FCC, begin broadcasting using the new transmission standard.
Stations will initially run a hybrid analog/digital signal, so as to not make everybody’s analog receivers immediately obsolete. At some undetermined time in the future the FCC will require radio broadcasting to go completely digital – the hope is when that time comes the public will have forked out the hundreds of dollars each for the new “HD Radios” they’ll need. Continue reading “FCC Admits Ignorance on Digital Radio, Adopts Standard Anyway”
FCC Adopts IBOC-DAB
Note: All audio is in 48kbps/44KHz mono MP3 format.
Speakers are listed in the order they appeared.
W. Kenneth Ferree – Chief, FCC Media Bureau (1:54, 673K)
Short and to the point, Ferree set up the charade by brandishing a logbook of some of the first radio licenses the FCC ever issued.
Notable quotes: Continue reading “FCC Adopts IBOC-DAB”