Mobile phones are the next great “growth platform that’s coming” because all mobile service providers are “looking for content to sell” as a hedge against price declines in voice- only services, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch told the Media Summit N.Y. conference in a Thurs. keynote. “We think there’s a huge opportunity there,” because there are at least 2-3 times as many mobile phones as computers, Murdoch said.
Russia export controls and sanctions
The use of export controls and sanctions on Russia has surged since the country's invasion of Crimea in 2014, and especially its invasion of Ukraine in in February 2022. Similar export controls and sanctions have been imposed by U.S. allies, including the EU, U.K. and Japan. The following is a listing of recent articles in Export Compliance Daily on export controls and sanctions imposed on Russia:
NTV-Plus, the direct-to-home satellite service provider that claims over 550,000 subscribers in Russia and Ukraine, deployed a high-definition encoder from Harmonic, the firms said. The encoder provides end-to-end compression for HD and standard programming. NTV-Plus hopes to offer 3 HD channels in late March.
Ex-NBC Universal Chmn. Bob Wright hopes to keep his role in the content industry fight for intellectual property rights protections, even though he’s leaving his post at NBCU, he said Tues. during a media teleconference. “For the time being, I'll certainly continue,” Wright said: “I'm in it pretty deeply and we'll see where that goes. It’s certainly one [issue] I'll continue to work on.” Wright has been one of the “worldwide leaders” in fighting piracy, MPAA CEO Dan Glickman said at a symposium his group hosted on the topic. Wright appeared by video link to kick off a discussion on the economics of copyright protection.
Alcatel Alenia Space will build Eutelsat’s W7 satellite, Eutelsat said. The satellite will be co-located with W4 at 36 degrees E, where it will double Eutelsat’s Ku-band capacity for Europe, Russia, Africa, the Middle East and central Asia, Eutelsat said. The craft will replace Eutelsat’s SESAT 1, which will be moved elsewhere, officials said. W4 already serves anchor pay-TV operators in Russia, Ukraine and sub-Saharan Africa. The new satellite will be lofted by Sea Launch in mid-2009.
Four municipal coalitions are discussing what action to take in response to the FCC’s franchise order (CD Dec 21 p1). Cities believe it may overstep Commission authority, said Libby Beaty, exec. dir. of the National Assn. of Telecom Officers & Advisors Her group is collaborating with the National Assn. of Counties, the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The groups sent Chmn. Martin a letter Dec. 12 saying Title 6 of the Telecom Act doesn’t allow the agency to intervene in franchising. The Alliance for Community Media, which advocates on behalf public access channels, also is involved in the discussions, Beaty said.
The Intersputnik International Organization of Space Communications contracted for Intelsat 904 satellite capacity at 60 degrees E for carriage of TV-Novosti news feeds, it said. Intersputnik will use the satellite bandwidth to downlink TV signals to Russia, the Baltic states, Turkey, Afghanistan and Israel, it said. TV-Novosti airs Russia Today TV in English and Arabic.
The U.S. is increasingly vulnerable to threats against commercial and govt. space systems, so the Bush Administration National Space Policy stresses space security more than earlier versions, a senior U.S. official said Wed. The 10-page document, the first update on that policy since 1996, was released in Oct. It seeks to ensure long-term safety of U.S. space assets in light of “new threats,” said State Dept. Under Secy., Arms Control & International Security Robert Joseph. Joseph spoke Wed. in the first remarks by a senior U.S. official on national space policy.
GENEVA -- An ITU focus group wants to gauge network operator preparedness for security threats and assess interest in a specification for it. The project, proposed by Russia, would generate recommendations indicating network operators’ readiness and ability for “collaborative and coordinated counteraction to information security threats arising from interconnected networks,” an official working with the Security Baseline for Network Operators focus group said: “Now virtually anybody can set up as a network operator. You really don’t know who you're dealing with a lot of the time.”
The U.S. and Russia signed a bilateral trade agreement necessary for Russia’s WTO entry. Among other things, Russia will open its telecom services market on a facilities and nonfacilities basis to foreign suppliers and let telecom companies operate though fully foreign owned. It has accepted a WTO telecom paper “establishing an independent regulator,” antitrust and transparency obligations, and interconnection requirements. It will also allow U.S. “audio-visual service suppliers” in sectors like motion picture distribution and the sale of TV and radio programs to stations, and they can operate as 100% foreign-owned.
GENEVA -- A working group of ITU member states has given preliminary approval for a World Conference on International Telecom (WCIT) in 2012 to consider treaty-level provisions for international telecom networks and services, officials here said. The Com5 group of nations meeting at ITU’s quadrennial policy-making conference Sun. approved a resolution to review the international telecom regulation and set a date in 2011 to fix an agenda for the 2012 conference.