Memo To FCC: Conduct the Public's Business in Public Posted by Bob at 11/30/06 01:11 PM

Associated Press Reporter John Dunbar is out with a story about a private meeting with FCC officials that should infuriate anyone who cares about open government.

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Wireless Consumers Can Now Unlock Their Phones Posted by Bob at 11/29/06 12:31 PM

Wireless phone users have received an unexpected gift from the U.S. Copyright Office. A new ruling by the Copyright Office allows wireless phone users to break software locks inserted into their handsets by carriers such as Verizon and Cingular.

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Verizon Hikes Cable TV Rates While Touting Competition Posted by Bob at 11/28/06 08:44 AM

For more than a year now, phone giant Verizon has been convincing state and local officials to let it sell cable television services in their communities using the argument that the new competition will improve service and drive down prices. So imagine our surprise when we learned that Verizon is planning to raise the rates on its FiOS television service in all those newly-competitive communities at the beginning of the year.

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Political Ads Outweigh Election News on Local Newscasts Posted by Bob at 11/27/06 12:39 PM

In the month leading up to the 2006 mid-term elections, local television news viewers got considerably more information about campaigns from paid political advertisements than from news coverage, a new University of Wisconsin-Madison study shows.

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FCC Has Earned the Public's Distrust Posted by Bob at 11/24/06 10:50 AM

In a move that is hard to interpret as anything but contempt for the public it is supposed to serve, the FCC chose to unveil the details of a much anticipated set of studies on media ownership late on eve of the Thanksgiving holiday.

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More Details on "Rural Satellite TV Consumers To Lose Network Programming" Posted by Bob at 11/22/06 10:49 AM

Earlier this week we told you about a federal court case that could rob hundreds of thousands of rural satellite television consumers of their access to the big broadcast networks such as NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox. We've done a bit more digging on this story and have some new details and additional perspective.

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Rural Satellite TV Consumers To Lose Network Programming Posted by Bob at 11/20/06 03:01 PM

Hundreds of thousands of rural satellite television consumers are about to lose their access to the big broadcast networks such as NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox because of a federal court case.

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NAB's Odd Accounting Trick to Claim Poverty: Part Two Posted by Bob at 11/17/06 11:55 AM

A new article in Adweek says this year's mid-term elections rewrote the record book for political advertising, with local broadcasters all across the country scoring huge windfalls.

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Less Public Information About Clear Channel Posted by Bob at 11/16/06 10:17 AM

The biggest owner of the nation's radio airwaves is going private.

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Maybe They’ll Invite the Dixie Chicks Posted by Bob at 11/15/06 01:06 PM

The Federal Communications Commission has just announced it will hold its second official public hearing on its media ownership rules in Nashville on Monday, December 11.

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Broadcasters Resort to Odd Accounting Trick to Claim Poverty Posted by Bob at 11/14/06 01:20 PM

Top broadcaster lobbying group tells FCC huge advertising windfalls from political campaigns and Olympics shouldn’t be included when determining the financial health of television stations.

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FYI: No Merger on Agenda Today Posted by Bob at 11/03/06 09:13 AM

Late yesterday the FCC removed the proposed AT&T/BellSouth merger from the agenda for today's open meeting.

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NBC Cuts Are Bad News for Telemundo Posted by Bob at 11/01/06 02:55 PM

Big media companies regularly brush aside charges that media consolidation homogenizes local news and public affairs coverage and shuts out minority voices. But even the slickest media mogul would have a hard time putting a positive spin on a cost-slashing plan recently unveiled by NBC Universal.

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