The first programming that showed up on the mobile DTV receiver was live from a news helicopter covering a hostage-taking at nearby Discovery Communications. The next day, the Washington Redskins game started at 10 p.m., a perfect opportunity for viewing mobile DTV with headphones in a darkened bedroom. The third day, it was all about watching live coverage of Hurricane Earl, at a desk.
Changes at AT&T: Senior Vice President-Public Policy and Chief Privacy Officer Dorothy Attwood moves to Disney; Robert Quinn adds title of chief privacy officer; Len Cali will add responsibility for global public policy … Mark Bohannon, ex-Software & Information Industry Association, hired by Red Hat as vice president of corporate affairs and global public policy, starting Oct. 1 … Seth Cooper, ex-American Legislative Exchange Council, becomes research fellow at Free State Foundation … CBS Interactive’s GameSpot names John Davison, ex-IDG GamePro, vice president-programming, games and Metacritic … General Cable new independent directors, expanding board to seven: Chip McClure, ArvinMeritor, and Patrick Prevost, Cabot Corp., who also will be on audit, compensation and corporate governance committees … Richard Kelley promoted by NBC Universal to president and general manager of KNSD San Diego … Daniel Danker, ex-Microsoft, joins BBC Future Media & Technology on Sept. 20 as general manager, programs and on-demand … Westwood One Network Radio Division President Gary Schonfeld leaving to return to AdLarge Media; Westwood One President Rod Sherwood to oversee Network Radio.
Intel agreed to buy Infineon’s wireless chipset unit for about $1.4 billion in cash. The acquisition, expected to close in the first quarter of 2011, strengthens the buyer’s position in the smartphone chip business, Intel said. The deal “strengthens the second pillar of our computing strategy -- Internet connectivity -- and enables us to offer a portfolio of products that covers the full range of wireless options from Wi-Fi and 3G to WiMax and LTE,” Intel CEO Paul Otellini said. “As more devices compute and connect to the Internet, we are committed to positioning Intel to take advantage of the growth potential in every computing segment, from laptops to handhelds and beyond."
The radio industry seems split on whether agreeing to pay royalties when broadcasting music would be offset by a cost cut in streaming fees, a requirement that FM chips be included in all cellphones and removal of legislative and Copyright Royalty Board uncertainty, our survey found. Some larger radio station groups and some of all sizes with relatively low debt believe that the potential of paying 1 percent on average of revenue in terrestrial music royalties, estimated to total $100 million annually, is offset by the benefits of a possible deal between NAB and RIAA. Smaller station groups and those that are more indebted are more wary because they can’t afford the royalty even if it gives them more business certainty, we found.
The FCC shouldn’t mandate technical specifications for set-top output physical layers or for home networking technology, said a maker of HD video chips. “Such regulations can constrain the innovation, variety and experimentation that is underway,” Entropic said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 97-80. Content distribution is moving toward Internet Protocol and toward distributing it “to a variety of retail devices using many different technologies, including MoCA 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0,” the company said. Chief Technology Officer Tom Lookabaugh met with Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, FCC CTO Douglas Sicker and other bureau officials.
Congress shouldn’t require mobile devices to include FM-radio chips, six manufacturers and wireless service providers said in a letter Monday to House and Senate Judiciary Committee leaders of both parties. CTIA, CEA, TechAmerica, the Telecommunications Industry Association, Rural Cellular Association and Information Technology Industry Council questioned the NAB’s and MusicFirst’s right to make the proposal in the groups’ performance royalty talks. The CEA and CTIA had objected to any legislation sought by radio broadcasters and music labels requiring chips in cellphones (CD Aug 16 p5).
CEA and CTIA are wrong to say there’s little consumer demand for putting chips that cost about 30 cents each in cellphones so the devices can get FM broadcasts, said CEO Jeff Smulyan of Emmis, which owns 25 radio stations. He responded to remarks from CEA President Gary Shapiro that a potential performance royalty deal between music labels and radio broadcasters is backward-looking and to opposition by CEA and CTIA to any congressional mandate for FM chips in cellphones as part of any agreement between members of NAB and RIAA (CD Aug 16 p5). “If you look at the studies around the world, there is great consumer demand,” with about 1 billion FM chips in cellphones worldwide, Smulyan said in an interview Tuesday. “CTIA knows that as well as I do.” He would be “delighted to debate Mr. Shapiro any day on this issue, and I am hopeful that he will understand” that radio isn’t a horse-and-buggy industry, as the CEA head implied, Smulyan said. “I think he must know that more than 5 million [additional] people listen to radio today” than two years ago, he said. “If he thinks that’s horse-and-buggy, then so be it."
Intel said it agreed to buy Texas Instrument’s cable modem business. Intel will bring its experience designing system-on-a-chip products using its Intel Atom processors to make advanced set-top boxes, residential gateway devices and cable modems, it said. “This acquisition specifically strengthens Intel’s product offering for the continuum of cable gateway products and reinforces Intel’s continued commitment to the cable industry,” said Bob Ferreira, general manager of the cable segment of Intel’s Digital Home Group. Intel offered jobs to all of TI’s cable modem team employees at sites in their home countries, it said. Intel said it expects the deal to close before January. Further terms weren’t disclosed.
Label-broadcaster talks on music royalties are a “backroom scheme of the NAB and RIAA to have Congress mandate broadcast radios in portable devices,” CEA President Gary Shapiro said Monday. He and CTIA have opposed any part of a potential performance royalty settlement between radio stations and music labels that would ask Congress to require cellphones to have FM chips (CD Aug 16 p5). “The performance royalty legislation voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee does not include this onerous and backward-looking radio requirement,” Shapiro continued. “Forced inclusion of an additional antenna, processor and radio receiver will compromise features that consumers truly desire, such as long battery life and light weight.”
The consumer electronics and wireless industries are concerned that a potential settlement of a disagreement over whether terrestrial stations ought to pay royalties when they air music could include requirements of chips to allow cellphones to get radio broadcasts, executives favoring and opposing a deal told us. The pact on the table (CD Aug 5 p6) would bypass the Performance Rights Act -- which broadcasters worry could pass over their opposition in the waning days of this Congress -- but it isn’t a done deal, broadcast industry officials said. There appears to be wide support among broadcasters for the pact, our survey found.