DirecTV – News Corp Deal Delayed by FCC

On Friday the FCC announced that they were delaying their review of the proposed acquisition of direct-satellite TV provider DirecTV by Rupert Murdoch’s omnivorous News Corp. Reportedly, Ken Feree, FCC media bureau chief, said the agency will be requesting more documentation and will be consulting further with the Justice Dept’s antitrust division.

One has to wonder if the delay is at all due to the massive amounts of flak the FCC received over its ham-fisted handling of the media ownership rules review. Perhaps Feree is feeling a little shell-shocked and wants to make sure that the Justice Dept. will back him up if he recommends to approve the merger.

On top of News Corp’s big TV network holdings — like FOX, FOXNews, FX — local TV stations, and movie studio, News Corp is already a big player in European and East Asian direct-broadcast satellite TV. Adding DirecTV to his stable would give Murdoch a massively global satellite TV presence with the ability to significantly leverage the content News Corp controls to undercut and squeeze out competitors.

Last year Echostar, which owns competitor Dish Network, was set to buy DirecTV, but the deal got nixed by both the FCC and the Justice Dept., which rightfully feared the US satellite TV duopoly shrinking into a monopoly.

GE division Hughes has been trying to dump DirecTV for a while now, even though DirecTV has been showing signs of growth. Unfortunately, any and all potential buyers must be well-heeled players in the communcations industry, meaning that any deal will probably result in some kind of industry concentration.

Limbaugh Admits He’s a Drug Addict

… but doesn’t cop to the charge that he’s been obtaining thousands of pills illegally. So, what’s the deal? If he isn’t getting his pills on the black market, is his doctor just too willing to hand out scrips, does he have a bevy of doctors ready to supply his needs, or is he taking off for Mexico when he needs a fix?

However, it seems that he’s speaking an unusual amount of truth, nonetheless. According to CNN he told listeners:

… he is “no role model.”

“I refuse to let anyone think I am doing something great here, when there are people you never hear about, who face long odds and never resort to such escapes. They are the role models,” he said.

Damn, I wish I was listening to the show just then. That’s a quote that needs to be busted out a year from now when he’s back on his high horse:
“I’m no role model… I refuse to let anything think I am doing something great here…” Put that to a techno beat and you can dance to it.

The NAB Radio Show Scene in Philly

Last week the National Association of Broadcasters held its annual Radio Show convention in Philadephia, home to the Prometheus Radio Project. Jesse Walker from Reason magazine has written a nice report on the proceedings, emphasizing some of the emerging conflicts both inside and outside the NAB.

By Jesse’s account (which is the only non-industry one I’ve read), this year’s Radio Show wasn’t as eventful as last year’s one in Seattle, which was confronted by the Reclaim the Media conference and the mircopower mosquito fleet. He says that this year NAB officials seemed a little worried about some reporters who came in on press passes and were working for Prometheus, since last year some Prometheus folks snuck in and set up shop as “Cheap Channel.”

Apparently the Prometheus folks were well behaved, though inquisitive. But according to Jesse, the most inquisitive and challenging reporter came from within the industry — read his account for more.

Goodbye Emusic, and Thanks for All the MP3s — Emusic Gets Acquired, Out Go the Old Rules, Out Go the Subscribers, Too

I’ve been a subscriber to the Emusic mp3 download service on and off for about 2 or so years. I was originally turned on to the service due to a free trial I got with the purchase of a CD burner. I stayed on because Emusic was the most rational of the music download services — (mostly) unlimited mp3 downloads for a monthly fee, with no DRM and the right to burn all the CDs you want (for your personal use).

That all came to a screeching halt today when Emusic subscribers received an e-mail from the company announcing that it had been acquired by “Dimensional Associates LLC (“Dimensional”), a private equity group focused on
providing innovative online music distribution services. ” The e-mail also informs subscribers that the terms of service are changing drastically:

“Unless you visit the link below:
http://help.emusic.com/cu/index.cgi?cmd=step2&st=1&categoryID=1198
and notify us of your intention to cancel your subscription
prior to November 8, 2003, your EMusic subscription will
convert into Emusic Plus. Under EMusic Plus, you will be
billed $14.99 per month for access to the service with no
minimum monthly commitment, but you will be limited to no
more than 65 downloads during your monthly billing cycle. “

(Here’s a FAQ from Emusic that explains the change).

From (virtually) unlimited mp3s to 65 a month? That’s a big change. At 14.99 a month that makes mp3s costs about 23 cents each, which is cheaper than iTunes 99 cent downloads.

But Emusic is not iTunes. First of all, Emusic has always been focused on small and independent labels, and as such is virtually devoid of Top 40 hits or superstar artists. Whereas one of iTunes strengths is its hoard of popular artists and hit songs.

In my opinion one of Emusic’s strengths — aside from cheap mp3s — was the exposure it gave to indie artists, making their music much more accessible, and giving people the ability to try it out in an unambiguously legal way, which (I presume) also compensated them.

Emusic had been an independent company, which was then acquired by Universal/Vivendi back in 2001, which worried subscribers then that the terms of service would change. Although there had been a slow encroachment of restrictions in the last year or so — limiting how many mp3s you could queue up at once, sending warning e-mails to people downloading “too many” mp3s in a month — by and large the service remained the same as when I first signed up.

Needless to say, I will be cancelling my current subscription before Nov. 8 (though I’ll probably download a ton before that). My guess is that most Emusic subscribers will be following suit. Which makes me wonder how Emusic’s new master expect to make any money with all their subscribers gone.

A quick search of the web, business indices and Lexis-Nexis turns up no information about Dimensional Associates LLC (probably because they are an LLC), so figuring out who they are and their motive is still difficult.

Emusic’s subscriber message boards are closed down today, too. Emusic subscribers tend to be an outspoken lot, so I’m sure it’s a move intended to quiet the anticipated firestorm by not giving subscribers a common forum to vent their frustrations.

Now, some of you might be thinking, “23 cents an mp3 seems pretty reasonable to me, why all the bitching from you spoiled brats?”

And, compared to iTunes’ 99 cents, I guess it does seem pretty reasonable, but compared to downloading entirely for free on Kazaa or other P2P services, it’s not such a good deal, especially since you can’t download unlimited quantities at that price, just 65 a month — then you’re done.

In the bigger picture, this is another example of the music industry shooting itself in the foot over simple greed. I don’t know the financials of Emusic, and I’m sure the selloff is due to the impending merger of NBC and Universal/Vivendi, but from a user’s standpoint it was a very successful service that I was glad to pay money for and never felt ripped off from, even though sometimes mp3s sounded like shit, albums were mislabeled or otherwise screwed up. You’ll tolerate those kind of inconveniences when you’re getting a good deal. I sure as hell wouldn’t tolerate them if I’m limited to just 65 downloads a month.

Will all these former Emusic subscribers now be flocking to other d/l services like iTunes and Rhapsody? I think not, since they won’t have the artists and songs that Emusic specialized in. No, I think they’ll be flocking back to Kazaa, and more secure alternatives, and to their public libraries’ and friend’s collections, where they can borrow and burn with (relative) impunity.

Good bye Emusic.

Another Bonk for Mikey Powell

On Monday Powell’s FCC was delivered another legal blow by the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled against that the Commission’s “deregulation” of cable modems. Earlier this year the FCC decided to classify cable modems as different than other Internet telecomm, like telephone-based DSL, thus removing the requirement that cable companies open up access to their lines just like local telcos are required to do. The court said that the Commission must continue to cable modem offerings as a telecommunications service, subjecting it to the same regulations governing DSL service provided by telcos.

The decision means that an outside ISP, like Earthlink, would be permitted to lease access to cable modem lines to offer its Internet service over cable modems, in addition to DSL and phone modems. It also means that cable modem customers, who typically only have one provider to choose from, might have a range of choices for this type of Internet service.

It’s amazing how in the name of promoting diversity and competition, Powell manages to do just the opposite, fortifying the power of incumbent monopolies.

But it’s also good to see him get bonked for such duplicitous bullshit.

Documenting The Slow Implosion of Local Media — Some Tips and Tricks

A company that owns two TV stations in Central Illinois, Nexstar, last week shut down the news operations for two stations in Billings, MT it’s acquiring, before the ink on the paperwork was even dry.

I try to keep tabs on what our local media owners are doing all over the country, because it’s generally a good indicator of what will probably go down in our area soon. Media companies often test new corporate policies in small markets to gauge reaction and fallout before they roll them out across the board. By the time a company decides to make it general corporate policy, it’s too late for most local communities to do anything substantive.

I also try to share that information. In this case I’ve written up a fuller story about Nexstar and our local TV news situation for the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center website.

I encourage everybody to do their own bit of research on their local media, too. The Internet has made it much easier to find news in local papers from across the country, in addition to finding out the dirt of who owns your local media.

The first step is to use a tool like the Center for Public Integrity’s “Well Connected” database to see who your local media owners are. Sometimes they’ll use barely hidden holding company names like “Nexstar Broadcasting of Illinois” rather than the full corporate name. Don’t be fooled, they’re all the same company. But sometimes they also use misleadingly named holding companies like “URBANA-CHAMPAIGN BROADCASTING PARTNERS.” Finding out who’s really behind them is a little harder, but can often just be done with a Google search.

Once you’ve figured out who owns what, dig for some dirt. If you have access to Lexis-Nexis, which is now pretty widely available at many colleges and universities, then do a search for the company name in the “Broadcasting Industry” subject area in the Business News section. That’s the method that I find most fruitful.

If you don’t have Lexis-Nexis, then you might have to work a little harder. A lof of the articles I find are out of the industry journal Broadcasting & Cable, which used to post articles for free on line, but stopped this year. But, luckily, this journal is widely available in most college and university libraries, and in many public libraries.

Even though you have to pay to read the articles on-line, you can still use the search function on the Broadcasting & Cable webpage to find references for the articles you’re looking for, and then go find them in the print version in your local library.

A quick aside — even if you’re not a student or staff member at a college or university, you can probably still get at least limited access to the stacks, and maybe even to on-line databases. If it’s a community college or state university, they’re probably required to give all local residents access (since it’s partially paid for by your tax dollars), even if they don’t advertise it widely. Ask your friendly librarian, s/he’ll be glad to give you the skinny.

Yahoo News and Google News are also both good ways to quickly search out major and local news sources from all over. The only caveat is that different sources treat their archives differently. So while an older article from a small local paper might come up on a search, it might not be available on the web — but, again, you can use that citation to find the article in a library.

It’s also good to know that there are other folks also searching out media news. In the case of Nextar’s Billings MT stations, I got the tip from the Benton Foundation’s Communications-Related Headlines service. It used to be just a daily-email newsletter, but now it’s also a blog. Although it’s only a few stories a day, Benton’s focus is on communications, democracy and the public interest, so their articles tend to be pretty relevent to my interests.

A couple of other blog-like sites I use are I Want Media and Romenesko’s Media Page. Both tend to focus more on the media industry and journalism, and are also more “insider” in their outlook. Nevertheless, the guys who run these sites seem to have an exhaustive list of bookmarks and find lots of good stuff every day. I Want Media also has a daily e-mail newsletter that I subscribe to.

Please, take these tips and tools and go forth and investigate. Put your local media owners under the lens, because they reticent to do it to each other, and absolutely unwilling to reveal this information about themselves. Post your findings to your local Indymedia website, your own blog, write it in a letter to the editor, or make your own newsletter or zine. Serve notice to media owners that we’re watching them.

If you have other tips or tools for digging up the dirt, please share them with me by e-mail, or comment to this post.

Klose Encounter of the Madison Kind

My pal John Anderson at DIYMedia.net got his own opportunity to press NPR president Kevin Klose on the topic of NPR’s efforts to quash low-power FM back in 2000. John was especially interested in hearing what Klose had to say about NPR claims that LPFM would cause heinous interference to their station, in light of the recent Congressionally-mandated Mitre report that concludes that LPFM poses no interference threat to any radio stations.

It all went down at a public entitled “Accuracy, Fairness, and Balance,” sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. John took his first shot during the audience question period, and he characterizes Klose’s response as an “artful dodge.” Read John’s full account for yourself.

It’s nice that John got a chance to follow up with Klose, since I had my opportrunity to question him on the topic on LPFM back in 2001, just months after Congress gutted LPFM, buying the NAB’s interference claims, hook, line and sinker. Klose played the interference card then, too. And while I knew that was a smokescreen, we didn’t yet have the Mitre report to show it so clearly.

You can read my account of that memorable exchange. However, unfotunately the audio link for the radio program where I actually questioned him is not working right now, so you’ll just have to trust me.

(One last thing — ain’t it convenient that Kevin has such an easy name to pun with?)

Who Owns Your Local Media? Whoever it is, they likely own A LOT of it.

I just found this great media ownership tool put together by the Center for Public Integrity. It’s the “Well Connected” database of owners for all radio and TV stations in the US, broken down by geographic area. Just pop in your zip or city name and go. It even gives you a nifty little pie chart of radio station ownership, like this one for my locale, Champaign-Urbana, IL:

The Center for Public Integrity also just released a series of reports on ownership concentration in radio and determines that concentration is bad all over, including smaller and medium-sized markets, not just big urban markets like New York and Chicago.

The report on smaller radio markets says:

“…[A]mong the 25 metropolitan areas most dominated by a single radio broadcast company, only Florida’s Sarasota-Bradenton area cracks the list of 100 largest markets.

“Number one on the ownership concentration list is Mansfield, Ohio, where Clear Channel owns 11 of the metro area’s 17 radio stations. Second is Corvallis, Ore., and third is Albany, Ga. Of the 25 markets most heavily controlled by a single owner, Clear Channel is the top owner in 20 of them and Cumulus Media Inc. (the nation’s second largest owner of radio stations) controls five.

“According to the Center’s study, a single company owns nine or more stations in 34 different metropolitan areas. The limit for even the largest markets in the nation, including New York and Los Angeles, is eight stations. ”

The Center for Public Integrity says that all this radio concentration — much of it way surpassing the FCC’s current and new rules — happened as a result of FCC inaction and negligence:

“The Federal Communications Commission knew as far back as 1998 that the way it measured radio markets was deeply flawed and could lead to the creation of behemoths like Clear Channel Communications, but failed to act in the face of industry pressure and bureaucratic inertia.

“The result is a radio industry where Clear Channel and other radio broadcast companies own far more radio stations in individual markets across the United States than was intended by Congress, despite years of warnings by the FCC’s own staff. ”

It just goes to show that while media ownership regs are one method to hold back the media goliaths just a little bit, they’re far from foolproof. Regulations have to be both written well and enforced well, and loopholes, laziness and corruption abounds. The media system as a whole is broke and ownership regs are just a crazy glue solution.

Oh yeah, Limbaugh’s Gettin’ a Taste

I know I should be more high-minded, but I must confess enjoying watching Rush stew in his own juices over being a racist moron, and now, maybe a prescription pain-killer drug addict. Now, if he were just some average schmoe, I wouldn’t cackle over the drug allegations. But since he’s a moralizing, arrogant, bigoted blowhard, who otherwise advocates that drug addicts essentially be rounded up and exterminated… yeah, I’m smiling.