Today, a coalition of public interest organizations submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission, warning the agency about the lack of effective competition in the nation’s mobile wireless marketplace. The commenters – including Media Access Project (MAP), Free Press, Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America, New America Foundation, and Public Knowledge – asked the [...]

Gil Scott-Heron famously wrote that “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” but as today’s entry shows, television is very persistent. DVR penetration still reaches only about one-third of households, and even those users do a lot real time viewing.
DVRS IN 36% OF HOUSEHOLDS
But 90% of viewing remains traditional
DVRs are now in 36% of all U.S. [...]

The competitive and privacy policy implications of targeted advertising on the web pose tremendous challenges for the public interest community. Although this article doesn’t address the similar debate involving cable TV, it is an excellent and even-handed overview.
Forbes
The Looming Battle Over Targeted Ads
Legislators and consumer groups are pushing for curbs on firms that track [...]

The major wireless carriers tell the FCC that a bad situation will get far worse if more spectrum isn’t soon made available to deal with the crushing load of data pulled down by smartphone and laptop users.
By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica
Mobile carriers in the US have been telling the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for months [...]

This factoid makes one sit up straight. It reminds us that the traditional over-the-air TV networks have the wrong priorities, and that they are investing in the present, not the future. It underscores something else as well – the network TV business may be suffering, but it is still very profitable, indeed.
KATIE AND [...]

MAP wishes to stress that it takes no position on the merits of the policy debate which gave rise to this proceeding, namely whether royalties should be paid to performers for the broadcast of their work. Rather, MAP’s interest here is to vindicate the rights of the public to have access to diverse points of [...]

The $100 billion estimate in today’s linked story may or may not be in the right ballpark, especially since – one fervently hopes – the TV “white spaces” spectrum will never be sold. What is important is that the FCC and the technology industries are making progress in bringing unlicensed use of this spectrum [...]

On October 8, Media Access Project (MAP) will hold the third session in its 2009 MAPPING CHANGE series, as the forum moves to Silicon Valley for a conference exploring “smart grids.” MAP will bring together experts on communications, IT, energy, and infrastructure to discuss policy developments and implementation strategies promoting smarter energy management and environmentally [...]

By Jenna Green, National Law Journal
You won’t hear Bruce Springsteen on KXIT (“Your home for the classics”) in the Texas Panhandle — or Sheryl Crow or Tim McGraw or Rod Stewart or dozens of other artists either.
It’s not their music that station owner George Chambers finds objectionable. It’s their membership in MusicFirst, a coalition that [...]

Today’s link is to a depressing blog post from Alan Mutter, one of the most insightful analysts of the newspaper industry. MAP has long counted on the Newspaper Guild as an ally on media concentration and other issues, so it is quite unsettling to see such a cogent presentation of its dilemma. There [...]