'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Shares of Pandora Media Inc. rose Monday after a group of federal lawmakers introduced a bill that could lower the royalties the online radio service pays to artists and their record labels.
A startup backed by media billionaire Barry Diller has launched a service that sends live local TV feeds to iPhones and iPads. But the service may be short-lived, since TV stations are likely to challenge its right to use their broadcasts.
Call it the Great Channel Squeeze.
Congress is often derided as being in the pocket of K Street lobbyists who use relationships with specific lawmakers to push through legislation favorable to their clients.
A federal appeals court has restored a longstanding ban that prevents media companies from owning both a newspaper and a television station in the same market.
The Supreme Court has added a couple of high-profile constitutional challenges to its lineup of cases for next term: One looking at governmental regulation of television content and the other dealing with the authority of police to use a GPS device to track a suspect's movements without a warrant.
"Avatar" director James Cameron said Monday that 3-D productions on television need the know-how of 2-D directors and producers to make economic sense for broadcasters and be compelling for viewers.
A long-running dispute between radio broadcasters and the recording industry over music royalties has taken an unexpected turn with a proposed settlement that threatens to drag the mobile phone industry into the ring.
To those who thought the National Association of Broadcasters couldn't yell any louder in opposing the proposed merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, think again.
In my four decades in the radio business, I've closely watched — and often played an active role in — the evolution of audio entertainment. But nothing I've touched though has come close to changing the consumer experience in the way I expect the recent announcement from Sirius and XM to offer a la carte programming following our merger will.
A "performance tax on local radio." That's how the National Association of Broadcasters is characterizing a recording industry push for compensation from over-the-air radio stations for music played on the public airwaves.
A "performance tax on local radio." That's how the National Association of Broadcasters is characterizing a recording industry push for compensation from over-the-air radio stations for music played on the public airwaves.
If we thought that the nation's two satellite-radio services — Sirius and XM — would each become a long-term going concern in the foreseeable future, we would be at the front of the line opposing their merger. If there were any evidence suggesting that Sirius and XM's respective losses of $1.1 billion and $732 million last year would soon evolve into respectable profits, we would oppose their merger. If there were evidence indicating that their separate operations, which so far have generated cumulative cash-flow deficits totaling $10 billion, would eventually produce positive cash flows within a reasonable period of time (even if losses continued), we would oppose their merger. If their combined share of the radio-listening market were 34 percent rather than the 3.4 percent it actually is, we would oppose their merger. If the combined 2006 broadcasting revenues of XM and Sirius were 27 percent of the revenues captured by commercial terrestrial (AM/FM) radio broadcasters rather than the 7 percent that they actually are, then we would oppose an XM-Sirius merger.
XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio said they plan to keep the approximately 800 employees based in the District and their local building if their proposed merger is approved.
Performers and others in the music industry have started a campaign calling for what they say is fairness in music royalties.
