It will be “a while” before all 4K standards, aside from TVs, are finalized, Roy Stewart, vice president-Digital Media Services at Technicolor, predicted Tuesday at the first Digital Entertainment World conference in Los Angeles. As examples, there are still no standards for 4K movies on optical disc or broadcast TV. Technicolor and other technology companies, meanwhile, are under a tremendous amount of pressure to keep costs down, said Stewart. When it comes to multiplatform content in general, markets outside the U.S. face an especially large challenge because international technology standards are more “diverse” than in the U.S., he said. Hurdles for starting a video-streaming distribution business are getting “higher and higher,” said Seung Bak, co-founder and co-CEO of online international TV content distributor DramaFever, on the same panel. Companies must make content available digitally as soon as possible now to prevent consumers from having to find illegal methods of accessing that content, he said.
Business practices for data security, protecting children and mobile apps were some of the issues updated in the Direct Marketing Association’s 2014 version of its Guidelines for Ethical Business Practices, released Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1cmobQa). The trade association said its new guidelines will take effect in July. DMA Senior Vice President-Compliance Services and General Counsel Senny Boone said in a release: “DMA believes self-regulation is the most effective tool to stave off unnecessary regulation and to keep innovative marketing moving forward to provide relevant, customer-centric marketing for consumers and ensure consumers have choices about their marketing.” DMA has opposed data broker legislation (CD Dec 20 p6). Most recently, the group objected to the Data Act from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., which would require that data brokers give consumers access to information collected about them, with the opportunity to correct the data or opt out of collection altogether (http://bit.ly/1fvYzxN).
Websites exclusively posting pirated movies, music and TV programs made nearly a quarter of a billion dollars last year from advertising, said a Digital Citizens Alliance (DCA) report (http://bit.ly/1f9EnXH). The report looked at 596 “content theft sites” profiting “exclusively from advertising dollars by pushing stolen” materials, such as isohunt.com, filestube.com, allmyvideos.net and 4shared.com, said a release from DCA, which describes itself as a “consumer-oriented coalition” aiming to educate the public and policy makers on the online sale of drugs, the digital pirating of creative content and the existence of online scams. Various industries -- health, pharmaceutical and creative -- financially back DCA, but a DCA spokesman told us the list of companies was private. The organization’s report said the 30 largest content theft sites averaged $4.4 million in 2013 profit, with profit margins of 80 to 94 percent. Thirty percent of the large sites carried ads from “premium” brands such as Google, Microsoft, Lego, Whole Foods and Zappos, the report said. “Ad profits are the tip of the iceberg,” said DCA Executive Director Tom Galvin, who also founded 463 Communications, a public relations company that has worked with companies like Skype and Facebook, in the release. “These ad-supported rip-off websites are just a small sample of the sites that are profiting from theft, and with the Internet population growing so quickly we need to address this problem immediately.” DCA commissioned MediaLink, a marketing and advertising advisory firm, to help with the study, which looked at Q3 2013 as the basis for its yearlong profit projections.
Facebook’s launch of video ads is “imminent,” David Lawenda, head-U.S. global marketing solutions, told the Digital Entertainment World conference here in Los Angeles Tuesday. The company has been testing the “premium” video service, in which ads will play automatically as soon as they appear on screen in user news feeds, but without audio unless users opt to hear it. Facebook takes “user sentiment very seriously,” so it wanted to gauge member reactions ahead of the launch, said Lawenda. The company completed the second of three rounds of tests of video ads for the coming Summit Entertainment movie Divergent and, “so far, the results are very positive,” he said. Mobile engagement among Facebook users is “off the charts,” he said. Fifty percent of Facebook revenue is coming from mobile now, he said, predicting mobile adoption among users will continue at a “rapid” pace. International growth is “extremely important” for CBS Interactive, CEO Jim Lanzone said in another panel at the conference. The company has about 250 million users of its content in China alone, he said, calling international a “huge area of growth” for his company. There is, meanwhile, so much digital content available industrywide that viewers don’t have the time to view it all, he said. Viewers must narrow their viewing down to content they need to view and content that’s “super high quality,” making it crucial for companies to produce the highest-quality content possible, he said. Similarly, “you really have to” create an online service that’s “phenomenal” to gain any traction today, said Zander Lurie, executive vice president at Guggenheim Digital Media. CBS Interactive is monetizing online content at the same rate as TV content, Lanzone also said. But it’s important to make sure that it’s measured accurately, he said. The second DEW conference will be Feb. 10-12, 2015, said Mary Dolaher, CEO of IDG World Expo, which organized the conference with Digital Media Wire.
In setting speed targets for broadband connections to schools and libraries, the FCC should ensure that its goals are not “quickly outdated,” ISP Sunesys told officials from the Wireline Bureau and the Office of Strategic Planning Monday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1aVSFu0). “In approximately five years 100 Mbps may be viewed as 56 kbps is today,” Sunesys said, saying it already delivers at least 1 Gbps to every school district or library it connects to, and some of its customers are already requesting 10 Gbps. Sunesys discussed the “future-proof benefits of fiber,” and recommended the FCC allow five-year contracts under the E-rate program, as well as encourage consortium applications for high-speed broadband.
Thirty-one percent of teens claim to have been bullied online, according to a survey released by Cox Communications and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Tuesday, said a Cox press release (http://bit.ly/1bMFMgK). Forty-one percent of those bullied told an adult, said the survey. The report also said that photos account for 73 percent of shared or “potentially inappropriate” content by teens, it said. Phone numbers and “curse words” are each 21 percent of shared or “potentially inappropriate” content by teens, while physical location is 19 percent, it said. Teens spend almost six hours per day online, and 83 percent access a social media site daily, it said. Eighty-four percent of parents of teens have talked to their kids about online safety, with 77 percent in the last year, it said. A total of 1,329 online interviews were done with teens ages 13-17 by U.S. Tru, the youth research arm of the international consultant The Futures Co., said a Cox spokeswoman.
Safer Internet Day 2014 should be a “wake-up call for parents,” said EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes Tuesday. The day was marked in more than 100 countries, including the U.S. for the first time, said the European Commission. Kroes said parents need to know what their children are doing online. “That’s not the EU’s job or a government’s job, it’s your job, and there are lots of websites and organisations to help,” said her written remarks. Children must be encouraged to create a better online world for themselves and stand up to cyberbullies, Kroes said. The European Telecommunications Network Operator’s Association said it established an internal child protection task force to boost the safety of communications services for children. ETNO’s approach to online safety is: Educating children, teens and teachers on how to get the most out of the Internet while keeping safe, offering services specially designed for youngsters, including security features on Internet, mobile and IPTV services, and facilitating cooperation among members and with public institutions to promote best practices. Liberty Global and European Schoolnet (EUN) said they're helping schools with e-safety challenges called eSafety Label and the Web We Want. The former, developed by EUN, Liberty Global, Microsoft, Telefonica and three European education ministries, is a pan-Europe online safety support and accreditation standard for schools, Liberty Global said. The Web We Want, developed by EUN in cooperation with Liberty Global, Google and a team of young people, is an educational handbook that helps teens and teachers make informed online decisions. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., touted the importance of broadband Tuesday as part of a Safer Internet Day event. It’s “critical now more than ever that our schools keep up with advancing technology,” Schumer said of E-rate revamps. Broadband is the “closest thing we have to a silver bullet” when it comes to expanding healthcare, revamping education and growing the economy, Schumer said. “Federal investment is required.” He pointed favorably to the FCC Connect America Fund and the National Broadband Plan.
Websites, privacy advocates and tech companies participated Tuesday in a “day of activism in opposition to” the NSA’s “mass spying regime,” according to an event release (http://bit.ly/1iIWEdk). To coincide with “The Day We Fight Back,” Google Vice President-Public Policy Susan Molinari released a blog post calling for changes to government surveillance laws (http://bit.ly/1bJfCLT). Google urged Congress to pass the USA Freedom Act, which would put an end to the government’s bulk collection of telephone metadata. “But there’s more that can be done as we consider appropriate reforms to government surveillance laws,” Molinari said. “Congress should update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to require governmental entities to obtain a warrant before they can compel online companies to disclose the content of users’ communications.” Molinari pointed to Senate legislation from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and committee member Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and House legislation from Reps. Tom Graves, R-Ga., and Jared Polis, D-Colo., that would accomplish this goal. The Center for Democracy & Technology backed similar reforms in a Tuesday blog post from CDT Fellow on Privacy, Surveillance and Security Jake Laperruque (http://bit.ly/1fe9e00). CDT also urged opposition to the FISA Improvements Act, sponsored by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., which would “codify existing surveillance practices into law,” Laperruque said.
The Internet Association warned of “threats to Internet freedom” in the form of “governments seeking to regulate the Internet or gatekeepers desiring to control access to the Internet,” an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1faq93C). In a meeting Wednesday with FCC Acting General Counsel Jonathan Sallet, the association said Verizon’s recent challenge to the FCC’s net neutrality rules “underscores” its point. “The Internet Association supports enforceable rules that preclude Internet access providers from using their gatekeeper positions to block or degrade access to content,” it said. “Transparency rules” should require ISPs to provide information on their network management practices, it said. Though many sections of the FCC’s net neutrality rules were overturned, the transparency rules were upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Also last week, Dish Network spoke with agency officials about the “possible need for rules applicable to broadband access providers who choose to hold themselves out as common carriers or in fact do so,” an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1faqu6q). “These rules can complement any rules that the Commission may consider promulgating under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act ... for broadband access providers that do not in fact hold themselves out as common carriers,” Dish said.
Amazon Studios announced Thursday 10 new pilot shows available on Prime Instant Video in the U.S. and LOVEFiLM in the U.K. Amazon will use viewer feedback as one factor in deciding which series move on to full-season production for exclusive viewing by Amazon Prime members, it said. Drama pilots include hourlong shows from creators Chris Carter (The X-Files), Eric Overmyer (The Wire, Treme) and Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch). Half-hour comedy pilots were created by writer and producer Roman Coppola (Moonrise Kingdom), actor and musician Jason Schwartzman (Saving Mr. Banks), writer and director Alex Timbers, filmmaker Paul Weitz, writer Jill Soloway (Six Feet Under) and executive producers Ice Cube and Michael Strahan, Amazon said. Kids shows on the pilot list come from creators Duane Capizzi (Transformers Prime), Josh Selig (Wonder Pets), Angela Santomero (Blue’s Clues), Arland DiGirolamo (Sketchy) and Geoff Barbanell (Kickin’ It), it said. With previous pilots, Amazon customers submitted “thousands” of reviews within the first few days of launch, and more than 80 percent of reviews received 4 and 5 stars, said Roy Price, director-Amazon Studios.