33 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981Copyright © 2015 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.The Telecom Digest for May 5, 2015
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| Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not in conflict; and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war. |
| William McKinley |
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| Date: Sun, 3 May 2015 20:18:07 -0400 From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: DOJ, having gotten stung, placing Calamine Lotion on Stingrays Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1505032017480.28988@panix5.panix.com> [wsj] U.S. Will Change Stance on Secret Phone Tracking Justice Department will review more about the use of such devices and launch a review The Justice Department will start revealing more about the government's use of secret cellphone tracking devices and has launched a wide-ranging review into how law-enforcement agencies deploy the technology, according to Justice officials. In recent months, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun getting search warrants from judges to use the devices, which hunt criminal suspects by locating their cellphones, the officials said. For years, FBI agents didn't get warrants to use the tracking devices. ==== rest, which includes some diagrams (no paywall!!!): http://www.wsj.com/article_email/u-s-will-change-stance-on-secret-phone-tracking-1430696796-lMyQjAxMTI1NDA0MzEwNjMzWj _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] |
| Date: Sun, 3 May 2015 17:26:02 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Comcast Folds. No Dancing In the Streets Yet. Message-ID: <A7B39841-21C4-418B-888D-333371A8A729@roscom.com> Comcast Folds. No Dancing In the Streets Yet Apr 26, 2015 By Jean-Louis Gassée Monday Note We may have dodged the Comcast/Time Warner bullet but we're still far from getting rid of the antiquated set-top boxes and cable modems that only exist to protect juicy old business models. http://www.mondaynote.com/2015/04/26/comcast-folds-no-dancing-in-the-streets-yet/ |
| Date: Mon, 4 May 2015 13:25:32 -0700 (PDT) From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: The Dreaded Bundle Comes to Internet TV Message-ID: <427c1fb3-3941-4a9d-9936-6af20f712bc7@googlegroups.com> By Tim Wu, The New Yorker, May 3, 2015 Dish television and Sony have introduced new ways of selling Internet TV. Will they be any more appealing to customers than expensive cable-TV bundles? When a man named Herb MacDonald pioneered the pay-one-price, all-you-can-eat buffet in Las Vegas sometime in the in the middle of the last century, he probably did not realize that his restaurant pricing would become a model for so many businesses, particularly in the media industries. The most prominent imitators, of course, are pay-TV providers (cable, satellite, and fibre optic) who for one price offer subscriptions to a whole mess of channels such as Oxygen, HLN, MTV, Fox News, Bravo, MSNBC, E!, and so forth. (In 2014, the average number of channels subscribed to was 189.1; the average number watched was 17.5.) There are some who like this arrangement: more is more, and the payments are simple, if large. Others, however, find this buffet--or "bundle," in industry jargon--annoying or unbearable. Continued: http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-dreaded-bundle-comes-to-internet-tv?mbid=nl_050415_Daily&CNDID=27898591&mbid=nl_050415_Daily&CNDID=27898591 &spMailingID=7713915&spUserID=ODQwNTMxMTI1ODcS1&spJobID=680353661&spReportId= NjgwMzUzNjYxS0 -or- http://tinyurl.com/mqg4hz7 New Yorker account required after initial free period. In response to the above article I sent the following letter to the editor: | In response to Tim Wu's May 3, 2015 editorial "The Dreaded Bundle | Comes to Internet TV," Wu correctly states the case from the point | of view of the retail vendor, whom he identifies as "a seller." | To more fully understand the situation I suggest that one should | consider the situation from the point of view of the programmer; | i.e., wholesale vendor. Advertising-supported program vendors are | media companies whose incomes derive from two sources: license | fees and advertising revenue. Both of these income streams vary | in proportion to the programmer's net paid circulation. In the | pay-TV world, net paid circulation is based on the number of | customers who subscribe the tier (i.e., the "bundle") on which | the signal is carried. | | Viewed from this perspective it is readily understandable that | programmers demand that cable TV companies carry their signals | on the most widely available tier; i.e. the "basic" tier. Full- | power broadcast stations have a federal right to carriage on | basic. Advertising-supported non-broadcast channels (e.g. ESPN, | CNN, Disney, etc.) write such demands into their carriage | contracts with retail vendors. | | It's no surprise programmers are now making the same demands of | internet-based bundlers. Neal McLain |
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