mediageek

Category: media ownership & consolidation

  • FCC Buried Media Ownership Report

    I’m on vacation and trying to stay off the internets, but this one just shouldn’t be missed. Back when the FCC made its first stab at revising media ownership rules, then-Chairman Powell and his fellow Republicans argued that localism and service to communities was an entirely separate issue than who owns the media outlets that…

  • FCC Chair Says He Wants Public Comment on Media Ownership, But Is Doing His Best To Undermine IT

    As Matthew Lasar points out, media activists are wasting no time reaching out to the public at large in order to educate about media ownership and listen to public opinion on the issue. Of course this happens while we wait for the FCC to finally announce the public hearings on the issue that its promised.…

  • Mobile FM Transmitters — A Modulator Menace, or a Mountain out of a Molehill?

    The traditional radio broadcast industry is getting pretty desperate lately. But while commercial radio has seen its fortunes slowly decline after squeezing out the consolidation profits, public radio has generally faired better. Nevertheless, there’s still some unregulated competition and interference coming from those little FM transmitters people use to pump their portable music players into…

  • DirecTV-DishNetwork Spectrum Deal Fails. What Does that Mean for a Merger?

    On the Aug. 4 edition of the radioshow I reported on a deal between the nation’s only two direct-broadcast satellite TV providers to cooperatively bid on wireless spectrum during the FCC’s auction. Now that deal is off , with the two companies pulling out of the auction, probably because the prices got too rich for…

  • Taking a Peek under the Astroturf

    Common Cause has been keeping tabs on the faux-grassroots Astroturf groups like Hands off the Internet and TV4US.org which have been lobbying on behalf of the big telcos with the smokescreen that there’s enormous public support for a national cable franchise and against network neutrality. Now Common Cause has released a new report compiling dossiers…

  • radioshow news headline: SENATE TELECOMM BILL STILL GOING NOWHERE

    From the Aug. 4, 2006 edition of the mediageek radioshow: The Senate Telecomm bill which would create a national cable franchise is no closer to a vote than it has been all Summer. One factor holding up the bill are Democrat threats of a hold or filibuster. Majority leader Bill Frist won’t let the bill…

  • radioshow headline: DISH AND DIRECTV GANGING UP TO BUY SPECTRUM

    From the Aug. 4 edition of the mediageek radioshow: Speaking of big media, satellite TV rivals Dish Network and DirecTV are ganging together to buy up as much spectrum as they can in the FCC’s Aug. 9 auction. Teaming up under the name Wireless DBS LLC the companies are looking to win the right to…

  • Ted Stevens Goes Postal

    On today’s radioshow I reported on a half-baked pamphlet that Senate Commerce Committee Ted Stevens is distributing to fellow Senators to promote his telecom bill and oppose network neutrality. Click here to take a look at the pamphlet yourself [PDF]. Public Knowledge’s Alex Curis asks some good questions about the pamphlet: Has a congressional committee…

  • #2 Music Download Service Has No DRM

    It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about eMusic. I was a customer for a few years when it was a monthly-subscription fee for all-you-can-download MP3s from independent and minor labels. I quit in 2003 when eMusic changed hands and went to a limited download model. But this year I decided to resubscribe after noticing…

  • Lying Liars on Network Neutrality

    Techdirt properly points the finger at liar Mike McCurry, current mouthpiece for the big telcos, for his farcical Op-Ed attacking network neutrality in the Baltimore Sun: Among the whoppers in the editorial: “The “neutral” proposal that companies like Google are touting will ensure that they never have to pay a dime no matter how much…