Every excuse for selling public airwaves is posing progressive------to raise revenue for the US Treasury still reeling from the tens of trillions of dollars in corporate fraud from last decade-------to use our low-frequency airwaves more effectively-----jobs jobs jobs as WiFi creates small business boom----NONE OF WHICH IS TRUE. The Affordable Care Act was about ending public health and moving US citizens to a cheapened telemedicine and to expand this globally-----taking much of internet space. This was about what the hundreds of billions being spent on placing medical record technology in place......then Race to the Top pushed online lessons and public schools and universities and now grow them globally-----THIS IS ABOUT WHAT THE AUCTIONING OF PUBLIC AIRWAVES HAS A A GOAL. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DO NOT NEED OR WANT ANY OF THIS----BUT YOUR CLINTON/OBAMA WALL STREET NEO-LIBERAL PUSHED ALL THIS AND POSED PROGRESSIVE IN MAKING IT SOUND GOOD FOR AMERICA.
It is the Ivy League universities all funded hundreds of billions of dollars in Obama's 2010 stimulus with Congressional neo-liberals on board that are the only ones benefiting from all this global market expansion and it is the Ivy League university endowments tied to buying all the public infrastructure in all US cities deemed International Economic Zones......like Johns Hopkins. Ivy League as in Wall Street universities----not Sports league.
*****************************************************************
Telemedicine will Drive Broadband Utilization in 2015: Congressional action includes 21st Century Cures Initiative
Telemedicine applications are one the most voracious consumers of bandwidth because of how much is required to support the transmission of streaming video and high resolution diagnostic imaging.
Wall Street is shameless as posing progressive now comes with helping veterans who are killed from the dismantling of Federal Veteran's Administration during Bush and Obama.
Telemedicine Requires Broadband to Deliver Healthcare Benefits
Diagnostic imaging and video monitorng drive demand for high capacity and speeds
By David Salway
Broadband Expert
Updated April 01, 2015.Broadband is an important facilitator of delivering long-distance clinical healthcare, remote patient monitoring and professional health-related education. Telemedicine is particularly important for patients in rural remote locations because of the scarcity of primary care physicians and specialists in remote areas of the country.
The delivery of telemedicine services include clinical services such as consultations, examinations and the real-time monitoring of patients.
Telemedicine also includes a number of non-clinical services such as doctor/patient communications, continuing medical education for healthcare providers, and physician training. E-health advocates point to the time and cost-saving elements of telemedicine which deliver critical medical services to residents of remote areas who would otherwise be unable to receive a high level of medical care.
FCC Considers Raising Broadband Speed Definition: Speed and bandwidth requirements still increasing
According to a recently published Reuters article written by Kathryn Doyle veterans with limited access to mental health facilities benefit from connecting with health professionals via phone or video.
continue reading below our video
The article cites a publish medical study entitled Telemedicine-Based Collaborative Care for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder which concluded:
Telemedicine-based collaborative care can successfully engage rural veterans in evidence-based psychotherapy to improve PTSD outcomes.
Researchers used 265 middle-aged veterans with symptoms of PTSD as the study group, with half receiving traditional mental healthcare services, and the other half using video or voice applications as a way to communicate and treat patients.
Researchers noted that patients in the telemedicine group had larger decreases in Post-traumatic Diagnostic Scale scores both the six and twelve month mark.
Telemedicine will Drive Broadband Utilization in 2015: Congressional action includes 21st Century Cures Initiative
Telemedicine applications are one the most voracious consumers of bandwidth because of how much is required to support the transmission of streaming video and high resolution diagnostic imaging.
Gigabit Broadband Speeds Spur Innovation
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski made note of the importance of broadband and telemedicine when he opened the FCC's mHealth Summit in Washington DC earlier this year.
"Why have we gathered some of the nation’s leading mHealth experts at the FCC? We’re hosting this event at the FCC, because the FCC is the nation’s expert agency on communications technology – and innovation at the intersection of communications technology and health care is essential to the quality of care for all Americans. High-speed Internet, wired and wireless, is helping doctors and scientists do their jobs better and faster. It’s giving consumers access to better information, tools and technologies. It is transforming our health care system."
Telemedicine Becoming the New Standard in Healthcare
"Today, a “smart” pill box can send automatic reminders to a patient to take her daily medication, and alert her physician or family members if she skips it. New mobile diabetes management devices are freeing patients from the burden of logging their glucose measurements and making remote monitoring a seamless process."
Key recommendations established in the National Broadband Plan regarding telemedicine include establishing sufficient connectivity for health care delivery locations. Other recommendations include:
______________________________________________
HERE IS WHY GLOBAL POLS ARE SELLING OUR PUBLIC AIRWAVES----POSING PROGRESSIVE----IT'S ABOUT MAKING K-12 ALL ONLINE CORPORATE BUSINESSES. IT'S NOT ABOUT QUALITY------IT'S ABOUT CHEAP AND PROFIT-DRIVEN. This is why they are selling our free TV airwaves.
'ConnectED is built atop the President’s challenge to connect 99% of American students in their classrooms and libraries with next-generation broadband and wireless connectivity within five years. He has also called on businesses, states, districts, schools, and communities to come together in support of this vision of next-generation classrooms, better able to meet the needs of competition in a global economy.
K-12 Education
In today’s global economy, a high-quality education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity—it is a prerequisite for success. Because economic progress and educational achievement are inextricably linked, educating every American student to graduate from high school prepared for college and for a career is a national imperative. The President has articulated a goal for America to once again lead the world in college completion by the year 2020, and all of President Obama’s education efforts aim toward this overarching objective.
To create an economy built to last, we need to provide every student with a complete and competitive education that will enable them to succeed in a global economy based on knowledge and innovation. President Obama has advanced reforms around four key objectives:
ConnectED Initiative
President Obama’s ConnectED initiative will enrich K-12 education for America’s students by providing teachers with the best technology and the training to make the most of it, and empowering students through individualized learning and rich, digital content. Preparing our students with the skills they need to get good jobs and compete with other countries relies increasingly on interactive, personalized learning experiences driven by new technology.
ConnectED is built atop the President’s challenge to connect 99% of American students in their classrooms and libraries with next-generation broadband and wireless connectivity within five years. He has also called on businesses, states, districts, schools, and communities to come together in support of this vision of next-generation classrooms, better able to meet the needs of competition in a global economy.
In the first year since the President announced the ConnectED initiative, private-sector companies have committed to provide schools across the country with more than $2 billion worth of free hardware, software, educational content, and wireless connectivity. And the FCC has pledged to invest an additional $2 billion to connect 20 million more students to fast broadband and wireless in their classrooms, over the next two years, as a down-payment on meeting the President’s “99-in-5” connectivity goal.
_________________________________________
Below you see one state, Ohio, where all of the small TV broadcasters are being encouraged to sell-----as are public media tied to universities and public TV. THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF FIGHTING AGAINST MEDIA MONOPOLY. Maryland has talked of selling its MPT---although its been corporate anyway----it is still vital for rebuilding our public airwaves locally as the American people are pushed off broadband. As Wall Street now tries to make WiFi sheik ----placing it in clothing and shoes----we need to know----THIS IS A HUGE WAY IN WHICH WE COMMUNICATE. Killing small businesses to create monopoly-----THAT'S WHAT CLINTON/BUSH WALL STREET GLOBAL CORPORATE POLS DO.
'"We have spectrum and we always need money," says PBS Chief Executive Paula Kerger, referring to member stations. She is worried that some areas could lose their access to local PBS stations, noting that some of its member stations have 20% of their audience receiving an over-the-air signal'.
THEY ARE OPENLY KILLING COMPETITION AND CREATING MONOPOLY
FCC Auction Promises Bonanza for Small TV Broadcasters
January 05, 2016, 09:31:00 PM EDT By Dow Jones Business News
By Thomas Gryta
LIMA, Ohio--Workers accidentally struck oil here in 1885, putting this tiny city on the map as the world's biggest oil field--a valuable patch that John D. Rockefeller later controlled.
Now Lima, (pronounced lye-ma), a rust belt town of 38,000 people, has another highly sought-after resource. This time, the riches are above ground and the deep-pocketed buyer is the U.S. government.
The process gives small TV stations a chance to cash out just as their business faces challenges from online video, wireless services and shifting audience behavior. After multiple delays, the process is expected to begin in March. Nearly 2,000 stations across the country could join the auction to sell their broadcasting licenses.
In giant media markets like New York City and Los Angeles, the bidding will start out high. One station broadcasting in Manhattan, an affiliate of Telemundo, has an opening bid of $900 million. But smaller cities may hit the jackpot, too. In Lima, the first--and maximum--offer for its most-watched station is about $110 million.
Changing habits
The auction demonstrates the shift in technology taking place across the media landscape--and resources being adapted to meet new needs. Momentum is tilting from over-the-air television to the Internet. As people use their smartphones to stay connected and watch video on the go, more bandwidth is needed to provide that connectivity.
"The FCC's goal is to make the most efficient use of the spectrum," says Lawrence Chu, an investment banker who worked as an adviser to the agency. "It is in high demand."
The process will start off similar to a Dutch auction, in which values are set at a high level and then diminish until the FCC gets the licenses it needs at the lowest possible price. Once it determines the amount it will pay for each station, the agency will then turn around and sell the licenses to carriers like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile US Inc. in a traditional auction with rising bids. Sprint Corp. has decided to skip the auction. Any difference in the amount paid out to the broadcasters and the resale will go in the U.S. treasury. If the bids from the buyers are too low, the whole process will restart.
Television stations that agree to sell their spectrum have two options: Take the full payout and go off the air, or be moved to another frequency for a lesser cut of the money. Either way, those channels could still be viewable on systems like cable and satellite. Stations that decide not to join the auction may be relocated to another spot on the dial whether they want to or not.
The FCC's auction is optional but the participation of certain stations in smaller markets could unlock important licenses in much larger markets. For example, channels relinquishing their airwaves in Lima could give the government more options for moving around stations in Toledo, which in turn could free up space in Detroit.
In Lima, stations could pull in as much as those in much bigger cities like Phoenix, a city nearly 40 times its size.
Like any auction, the outcome isn't a sure thing for any participant. Some stations could be frozen immediately, meaning their sale is accepted, while others could ultimately find that they aren't in demand.
Local media mogul Allan Block is one owner who has a quandary on his hands. The 61-year-old is the scion of a 115- year-old media dynasty which owns nearly all the local TV stations in Lima, a small cable television system--as well as the Toledo Blade newspaper and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His twin brother John is editor in chief and publisher at both.
In a quirk that could only happen in a small-town market, Block Communications owns all four network affiliates in Lima. The same live nightly local news program is simulcast--both at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.--across its NBC, CBS and ABC channels. The stations, including the local FOX channel, broadcast from a single 550-foot tower that sits in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
"Lima has never been a great growth market," says Mr. Block, who lives in Toledo, about an hour-and-half drive away. "But it is very steady."
Block's portfolio of local broadcast stations, which includes the Fox affiliate in Louisville, and an NBC station in Decatur, Ill., have opening bids of more than $1.2 billion from the FCC, he says. He has hired lawyers and financial advisers and is planning to jump into the auction.
To drum up interest in the auction, officials at the FCC spent months on the road trying to convince stations to give up their licenses. They even took the unusual step of enlisting Mr. Chu--now a managing director at investment bank Moelis & Co.--to make the pitch directly to station owners. The agenda for the roadshow listed Lima among the roughly 50 markets whose participation the agency deemed as potentially crucial.
The airwaves being shuffled around are prime for sending signals far into the countryside but are also good for penetrating deep into buildings, both qualities that are attractive for wireless service providers. The government's last airwaves auction--the first major sale since 2008--closed in January 2015 with bids of nearly $45 billion.
The dollar amounts connected to the auction are staggering for some of the stations in the government's sights, especially outfits such as PBS affiliates and religious broadcasters that are used to operating on shoestring budgets.
"We have spectrum and we always need money," says PBS Chief Executive Paula Kerger, referring to member stations. She is worried that some areas could lose their access to local PBS stations, noting that some of its member stations have 20% of their audience receiving an over-the-air signal.
"There are no do-overs," she says, "once you sell your spectrum, it is gone."
Tough choices
In Pittston, Pa., a town of 7,700 nestled between the bigger markets of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, local PBS channel WVIA has decided to enter the auction after months of deliberation. The FCC's opening bid for WVIA's broadcast license is more than $300 million.
The station occupied two rooms in a church at a local college when it was founded in 1966. It now resides in a small one-story building on a side road with few other businesses nearby. One of its most popular shows is "Pennsylvania Polka," which features locals dancing to a live polka band.
But it won't consider going off the air, President Tom Curra says, because it would lose its PBS affiliation and go against the station's stated mission of serving the public.
The channel, which has a $5 million annual budget, estimates its signal covers about a third of the state and that 10% to 15% of its viewers watch using over-the-air reception.
Although bids will likely fall from the opening price, a station like WVIA could still walk away with substantial funds. In a report, the FCC estimated in October 2014 that the median compensation for channels in the Pittston area would be $140 million--more than the $120 million projected for stations in Chicago and enough to cover WVIA's strained annual budget for decades.
The issue is delicate. In Bowling Green, Ohio, PBS station WBGU triggered public outcry when it said it was considering entering the auction and shutting down its broadcast. The station's signal covers Lima, but it is considered to be in the Toledo market. Feedback at local town hall meetings helped convince the station's owner, Bowling Green University, to keep it on the air--but it will enter the auction nonetheless.
"It is a very complicated issue and one of the challenges was separating the emotion from the facts," says university spokesman Dave Kielmeyer. "It was a painful process but it was a good process."
Back in Lima, nonprofit religious broadcaster WTLW could get an almost unthinkable amount of cash from the auction. The station, with 12 full-time workers and an annual budget of $1.3 million, hired consultants to help it reach a decision to enter the auction. It prefers to stay broadcasting but hasn't ruled out going off the air, says station President Kevin Bowers.
WTLW operates out of an old airport, a relic of the days when the city was served by commercial flights. Its programming tends to be family oriented, ranging from local sports and Christian-oriented shows, alongside reruns of The Donna Reed Show and The Beverly Hillbillies. The station's sports editors work out of the old waiting room and the studio was once the airplane hanger.
The station gets a third of its donations from over-the-air viewers and 12% of households in the viewing area depend on antennas. That has made the station sensitive to cutting off viewers, but it says it plans to use proceeds from the auction to invest in ways to deliver its programming other than on cable and satellite systems.
"We aren't blind to changing technology," says Mr. Bowers. "How people view is changing." The station, he says, is looking into wireless streaming and over-the-top options that would allow people to continue watching its offerings. " Even older viewers have an expectation of video on demand."
Weighing options
For Mr. Block, the issue is whether the final bids will be high enough to relinquish the airwaves above Lima. With four affiliates going over the air, he could free up some bandwidth by downgrading to standard definition from high definition for some of the over-the-air signals.
______________________________________________
OH, LOOK------ALL OF THIS CREATION OF MONOPOLY BY SELLING OFF OUR PUBLIC AIRWAVES IS ILLEGAL------IT VIOLATES ALL OF OUR US ANTI-TRUST AND MONOPOLY LAWS AND CAN BE VOIDED-----KNOW WHAT? MARYLAND HAS MONOPOLY LAWS TOO! It looks as though social Democrats can simply VOID all monopolies operating in Baltimore and/or Maryland. Know who passes all this monopoly mess? ALL OF MARYLAND'S POLS----CLINTON/OBAMA NEO-LIBERALS AND BUSH/HOPKINS NEO-CONS. All they have done these few decades is create illegal monopolies.
CUMMINGS, CARDIN, SARBANES, MIKULSKI AND HER CANDIDATES EDWARDS AND VAN HOLLEN----ALL CREATED THIS MONOPOLY MESS BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ZONES ARE.
Here neo-conservative Larry Hogan shouting out against all this creation of monopoly? No, he's not a Republican just as those above are not Democrats!
OH REALLY?????--------------------'The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the federal agency that seeks to promote free and fair competition in interstate commerce'.
Let's see----do I want the Verizon package for $79 or do I want the Comcast package for $79?
What is Antitrust Law and Trade Regulation?
Definition of Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law
Antitrust law aims to protect trade and commerce from unfair restraints, monopolies and price fixing. Antitrust law is primarily governed by two federal laws: the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act. Most states also have their own antitrust laws patterned on federal laws.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) investigates antitrust matters and is authorized to convene a grand jury to indict suspects. Civil remedies include injunctions, divestiture and/or cancellation of contracts. Civil and criminal penalties may apply if a company is determined to be in violation of antitrust laws. Criminal acts are punishable by large fines and/or imprisonment.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the federal agency that seeks to promote free and fair competition in interstate commerce. The FTC is tasked with many consumer protection duties, as well. It has exclusive jurisdiction to prohibit unfair competition and unfair or deceptive acts.
Terms to Know
Other Considerations When Hiring an Antitrust and Trade Regulation Lawyer
Most antitrust issues arise when the DOJ or FTC investigates large companies about to merge. The mergers are often in the same industry and may involve unfair business tactics or outcomes. In these cases, the antitrust lawyers involved are usually the company's corporate attorneys. However, some corporations may not have an in-house antitrust specialist, so they may seek to hire an attorney who specializes in antitrust.
Smaller corporations and businesses may also be involved in antitrust issues. Small businesses often file complaints about unfair competition with the FTC. These businesses often hire antitrust attorneys in order to ensure that the process for filing a complaint is followed and to help make the most persuasive case for government action.
If you or your business is involved in an antitrust or trade regulation issue, contact an antitrust lawyer immediately to protect your rights and explore your legal options.
It is the Ivy League universities all funded hundreds of billions of dollars in Obama's 2010 stimulus with Congressional neo-liberals on board that are the only ones benefiting from all this global market expansion and it is the Ivy League university endowments tied to buying all the public infrastructure in all US cities deemed International Economic Zones......like Johns Hopkins. Ivy League as in Wall Street universities----not Sports league.
*****************************************************************
Telemedicine will Drive Broadband Utilization in 2015: Congressional action includes 21st Century Cures Initiative
Telemedicine applications are one the most voracious consumers of bandwidth because of how much is required to support the transmission of streaming video and high resolution diagnostic imaging.
Wall Street is shameless as posing progressive now comes with helping veterans who are killed from the dismantling of Federal Veteran's Administration during Bush and Obama.
Telemedicine Requires Broadband to Deliver Healthcare Benefits
Diagnostic imaging and video monitorng drive demand for high capacity and speeds
By David Salway
Broadband Expert
Updated April 01, 2015.Broadband is an important facilitator of delivering long-distance clinical healthcare, remote patient monitoring and professional health-related education. Telemedicine is particularly important for patients in rural remote locations because of the scarcity of primary care physicians and specialists in remote areas of the country.
The delivery of telemedicine services include clinical services such as consultations, examinations and the real-time monitoring of patients.
Telemedicine also includes a number of non-clinical services such as doctor/patient communications, continuing medical education for healthcare providers, and physician training. E-health advocates point to the time and cost-saving elements of telemedicine which deliver critical medical services to residents of remote areas who would otherwise be unable to receive a high level of medical care.
FCC Considers Raising Broadband Speed Definition: Speed and bandwidth requirements still increasing
According to a recently published Reuters article written by Kathryn Doyle veterans with limited access to mental health facilities benefit from connecting with health professionals via phone or video.
continue reading below our video
The article cites a publish medical study entitled Telemedicine-Based Collaborative Care for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder which concluded:
Telemedicine-based collaborative care can successfully engage rural veterans in evidence-based psychotherapy to improve PTSD outcomes.
Researchers used 265 middle-aged veterans with symptoms of PTSD as the study group, with half receiving traditional mental healthcare services, and the other half using video or voice applications as a way to communicate and treat patients.
Researchers noted that patients in the telemedicine group had larger decreases in Post-traumatic Diagnostic Scale scores both the six and twelve month mark.
Telemedicine will Drive Broadband Utilization in 2015: Congressional action includes 21st Century Cures Initiative
Telemedicine applications are one the most voracious consumers of bandwidth because of how much is required to support the transmission of streaming video and high resolution diagnostic imaging.
Gigabit Broadband Speeds Spur Innovation
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski made note of the importance of broadband and telemedicine when he opened the FCC's mHealth Summit in Washington DC earlier this year.
"Why have we gathered some of the nation’s leading mHealth experts at the FCC? We’re hosting this event at the FCC, because the FCC is the nation’s expert agency on communications technology – and innovation at the intersection of communications technology and health care is essential to the quality of care for all Americans. High-speed Internet, wired and wireless, is helping doctors and scientists do their jobs better and faster. It’s giving consumers access to better information, tools and technologies. It is transforming our health care system."
Telemedicine Becoming the New Standard in Healthcare
"Today, a “smart” pill box can send automatic reminders to a patient to take her daily medication, and alert her physician or family members if she skips it. New mobile diabetes management devices are freeing patients from the burden of logging their glucose measurements and making remote monitoring a seamless process."
Key recommendations established in the National Broadband Plan regarding telemedicine include establishing sufficient connectivity for health care delivery locations. Other recommendations include:
- The FCC should replace the existing Internet Access Fund with a Health Care Broadband Access Fund.
- The FCC should establish a Health Care Broadband Infrastructure Fund to subsidize network deployment to health care delivery locations where existing networks are insufficient.
- The FCC should authorize participation in the Health Care Broadband Funds by long-term care facilities, off-site administrative offices, data centers and other similar locations.
- Congress should consider providing support for for-profit institutions that serve particularly vulnerable populations.
______________________________________________
HERE IS WHY GLOBAL POLS ARE SELLING OUR PUBLIC AIRWAVES----POSING PROGRESSIVE----IT'S ABOUT MAKING K-12 ALL ONLINE CORPORATE BUSINESSES. IT'S NOT ABOUT QUALITY------IT'S ABOUT CHEAP AND PROFIT-DRIVEN. This is why they are selling our free TV airwaves.
'ConnectED is built atop the President’s challenge to connect 99% of American students in their classrooms and libraries with next-generation broadband and wireless connectivity within five years. He has also called on businesses, states, districts, schools, and communities to come together in support of this vision of next-generation classrooms, better able to meet the needs of competition in a global economy.
K-12 Education
In today’s global economy, a high-quality education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity—it is a prerequisite for success. Because economic progress and educational achievement are inextricably linked, educating every American student to graduate from high school prepared for college and for a career is a national imperative. The President has articulated a goal for America to once again lead the world in college completion by the year 2020, and all of President Obama’s education efforts aim toward this overarching objective.
To create an economy built to last, we need to provide every student with a complete and competitive education that will enable them to succeed in a global economy based on knowledge and innovation. President Obama has advanced reforms around four key objectives:
- Higher standards and better assessments that will prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace
- Ambitious efforts to recruit, prepare, develop, and advance effective teachers and principals, especially in the classrooms where they are most needed
- Smarter data systems to measure student growth and success, and help educators improve teaching and learning
- New attention and a national effort to turn around our lowest-achieving schools.
ConnectED Initiative
President Obama’s ConnectED initiative will enrich K-12 education for America’s students by providing teachers with the best technology and the training to make the most of it, and empowering students through individualized learning and rich, digital content. Preparing our students with the skills they need to get good jobs and compete with other countries relies increasingly on interactive, personalized learning experiences driven by new technology.
ConnectED is built atop the President’s challenge to connect 99% of American students in their classrooms and libraries with next-generation broadband and wireless connectivity within five years. He has also called on businesses, states, districts, schools, and communities to come together in support of this vision of next-generation classrooms, better able to meet the needs of competition in a global economy.
In the first year since the President announced the ConnectED initiative, private-sector companies have committed to provide schools across the country with more than $2 billion worth of free hardware, software, educational content, and wireless connectivity. And the FCC has pledged to invest an additional $2 billion to connect 20 million more students to fast broadband and wireless in their classrooms, over the next two years, as a down-payment on meeting the President’s “99-in-5” connectivity goal.
_________________________________________
Below you see one state, Ohio, where all of the small TV broadcasters are being encouraged to sell-----as are public media tied to universities and public TV. THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF FIGHTING AGAINST MEDIA MONOPOLY. Maryland has talked of selling its MPT---although its been corporate anyway----it is still vital for rebuilding our public airwaves locally as the American people are pushed off broadband. As Wall Street now tries to make WiFi sheik ----placing it in clothing and shoes----we need to know----THIS IS A HUGE WAY IN WHICH WE COMMUNICATE. Killing small businesses to create monopoly-----THAT'S WHAT CLINTON/BUSH WALL STREET GLOBAL CORPORATE POLS DO.
'"We have spectrum and we always need money," says PBS Chief Executive Paula Kerger, referring to member stations. She is worried that some areas could lose their access to local PBS stations, noting that some of its member stations have 20% of their audience receiving an over-the-air signal'.
THEY ARE OPENLY KILLING COMPETITION AND CREATING MONOPOLY
FCC Auction Promises Bonanza for Small TV Broadcasters
January 05, 2016, 09:31:00 PM EDT By Dow Jones Business News
By Thomas Gryta
LIMA, Ohio--Workers accidentally struck oil here in 1885, putting this tiny city on the map as the world's biggest oil field--a valuable patch that John D. Rockefeller later controlled.
Now Lima, (pronounced lye-ma), a rust belt town of 38,000 people, has another highly sought-after resource. This time, the riches are above ground and the deep-pocketed buyer is the U.S. government.
The process gives small TV stations a chance to cash out just as their business faces challenges from online video, wireless services and shifting audience behavior. After multiple delays, the process is expected to begin in March. Nearly 2,000 stations across the country could join the auction to sell their broadcasting licenses.
In giant media markets like New York City and Los Angeles, the bidding will start out high. One station broadcasting in Manhattan, an affiliate of Telemundo, has an opening bid of $900 million. But smaller cities may hit the jackpot, too. In Lima, the first--and maximum--offer for its most-watched station is about $110 million.
Changing habits
The auction demonstrates the shift in technology taking place across the media landscape--and resources being adapted to meet new needs. Momentum is tilting from over-the-air television to the Internet. As people use their smartphones to stay connected and watch video on the go, more bandwidth is needed to provide that connectivity.
"The FCC's goal is to make the most efficient use of the spectrum," says Lawrence Chu, an investment banker who worked as an adviser to the agency. "It is in high demand."
The process will start off similar to a Dutch auction, in which values are set at a high level and then diminish until the FCC gets the licenses it needs at the lowest possible price. Once it determines the amount it will pay for each station, the agency will then turn around and sell the licenses to carriers like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile US Inc. in a traditional auction with rising bids. Sprint Corp. has decided to skip the auction. Any difference in the amount paid out to the broadcasters and the resale will go in the U.S. treasury. If the bids from the buyers are too low, the whole process will restart.
Television stations that agree to sell their spectrum have two options: Take the full payout and go off the air, or be moved to another frequency for a lesser cut of the money. Either way, those channels could still be viewable on systems like cable and satellite. Stations that decide not to join the auction may be relocated to another spot on the dial whether they want to or not.
The FCC's auction is optional but the participation of certain stations in smaller markets could unlock important licenses in much larger markets. For example, channels relinquishing their airwaves in Lima could give the government more options for moving around stations in Toledo, which in turn could free up space in Detroit.
In Lima, stations could pull in as much as those in much bigger cities like Phoenix, a city nearly 40 times its size.
Like any auction, the outcome isn't a sure thing for any participant. Some stations could be frozen immediately, meaning their sale is accepted, while others could ultimately find that they aren't in demand.
Local media mogul Allan Block is one owner who has a quandary on his hands. The 61-year-old is the scion of a 115- year-old media dynasty which owns nearly all the local TV stations in Lima, a small cable television system--as well as the Toledo Blade newspaper and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His twin brother John is editor in chief and publisher at both.
In a quirk that could only happen in a small-town market, Block Communications owns all four network affiliates in Lima. The same live nightly local news program is simulcast--both at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.--across its NBC, CBS and ABC channels. The stations, including the local FOX channel, broadcast from a single 550-foot tower that sits in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
"Lima has never been a great growth market," says Mr. Block, who lives in Toledo, about an hour-and-half drive away. "But it is very steady."
Block's portfolio of local broadcast stations, which includes the Fox affiliate in Louisville, and an NBC station in Decatur, Ill., have opening bids of more than $1.2 billion from the FCC, he says. He has hired lawyers and financial advisers and is planning to jump into the auction.
To drum up interest in the auction, officials at the FCC spent months on the road trying to convince stations to give up their licenses. They even took the unusual step of enlisting Mr. Chu--now a managing director at investment bank Moelis & Co.--to make the pitch directly to station owners. The agenda for the roadshow listed Lima among the roughly 50 markets whose participation the agency deemed as potentially crucial.
The airwaves being shuffled around are prime for sending signals far into the countryside but are also good for penetrating deep into buildings, both qualities that are attractive for wireless service providers. The government's last airwaves auction--the first major sale since 2008--closed in January 2015 with bids of nearly $45 billion.
The dollar amounts connected to the auction are staggering for some of the stations in the government's sights, especially outfits such as PBS affiliates and religious broadcasters that are used to operating on shoestring budgets.
"We have spectrum and we always need money," says PBS Chief Executive Paula Kerger, referring to member stations. She is worried that some areas could lose their access to local PBS stations, noting that some of its member stations have 20% of their audience receiving an over-the-air signal.
"There are no do-overs," she says, "once you sell your spectrum, it is gone."
Tough choices
In Pittston, Pa., a town of 7,700 nestled between the bigger markets of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, local PBS channel WVIA has decided to enter the auction after months of deliberation. The FCC's opening bid for WVIA's broadcast license is more than $300 million.
The station occupied two rooms in a church at a local college when it was founded in 1966. It now resides in a small one-story building on a side road with few other businesses nearby. One of its most popular shows is "Pennsylvania Polka," which features locals dancing to a live polka band.
But it won't consider going off the air, President Tom Curra says, because it would lose its PBS affiliation and go against the station's stated mission of serving the public.
The channel, which has a $5 million annual budget, estimates its signal covers about a third of the state and that 10% to 15% of its viewers watch using over-the-air reception.
Although bids will likely fall from the opening price, a station like WVIA could still walk away with substantial funds. In a report, the FCC estimated in October 2014 that the median compensation for channels in the Pittston area would be $140 million--more than the $120 million projected for stations in Chicago and enough to cover WVIA's strained annual budget for decades.
The issue is delicate. In Bowling Green, Ohio, PBS station WBGU triggered public outcry when it said it was considering entering the auction and shutting down its broadcast. The station's signal covers Lima, but it is considered to be in the Toledo market. Feedback at local town hall meetings helped convince the station's owner, Bowling Green University, to keep it on the air--but it will enter the auction nonetheless.
"It is a very complicated issue and one of the challenges was separating the emotion from the facts," says university spokesman Dave Kielmeyer. "It was a painful process but it was a good process."
Back in Lima, nonprofit religious broadcaster WTLW could get an almost unthinkable amount of cash from the auction. The station, with 12 full-time workers and an annual budget of $1.3 million, hired consultants to help it reach a decision to enter the auction. It prefers to stay broadcasting but hasn't ruled out going off the air, says station President Kevin Bowers.
WTLW operates out of an old airport, a relic of the days when the city was served by commercial flights. Its programming tends to be family oriented, ranging from local sports and Christian-oriented shows, alongside reruns of The Donna Reed Show and The Beverly Hillbillies. The station's sports editors work out of the old waiting room and the studio was once the airplane hanger.
The station gets a third of its donations from over-the-air viewers and 12% of households in the viewing area depend on antennas. That has made the station sensitive to cutting off viewers, but it says it plans to use proceeds from the auction to invest in ways to deliver its programming other than on cable and satellite systems.
"We aren't blind to changing technology," says Mr. Bowers. "How people view is changing." The station, he says, is looking into wireless streaming and over-the-top options that would allow people to continue watching its offerings. " Even older viewers have an expectation of video on demand."
Weighing options
For Mr. Block, the issue is whether the final bids will be high enough to relinquish the airwaves above Lima. With four affiliates going over the air, he could free up some bandwidth by downgrading to standard definition from high definition for some of the over-the-air signals.
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OH, LOOK------ALL OF THIS CREATION OF MONOPOLY BY SELLING OFF OUR PUBLIC AIRWAVES IS ILLEGAL------IT VIOLATES ALL OF OUR US ANTI-TRUST AND MONOPOLY LAWS AND CAN BE VOIDED-----KNOW WHAT? MARYLAND HAS MONOPOLY LAWS TOO! It looks as though social Democrats can simply VOID all monopolies operating in Baltimore and/or Maryland. Know who passes all this monopoly mess? ALL OF MARYLAND'S POLS----CLINTON/OBAMA NEO-LIBERALS AND BUSH/HOPKINS NEO-CONS. All they have done these few decades is create illegal monopolies.
CUMMINGS, CARDIN, SARBANES, MIKULSKI AND HER CANDIDATES EDWARDS AND VAN HOLLEN----ALL CREATED THIS MONOPOLY MESS BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ZONES ARE.
Here neo-conservative Larry Hogan shouting out against all this creation of monopoly? No, he's not a Republican just as those above are not Democrats!
OH REALLY?????--------------------'The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the federal agency that seeks to promote free and fair competition in interstate commerce'.
Let's see----do I want the Verizon package for $79 or do I want the Comcast package for $79?
What is Antitrust Law and Trade Regulation?
Definition of Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law
Antitrust law aims to protect trade and commerce from unfair restraints, monopolies and price fixing. Antitrust law is primarily governed by two federal laws: the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act. Most states also have their own antitrust laws patterned on federal laws.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) investigates antitrust matters and is authorized to convene a grand jury to indict suspects. Civil remedies include injunctions, divestiture and/or cancellation of contracts. Civil and criminal penalties may apply if a company is determined to be in violation of antitrust laws. Criminal acts are punishable by large fines and/or imprisonment.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the federal agency that seeks to promote free and fair competition in interstate commerce. The FTC is tasked with many consumer protection duties, as well. It has exclusive jurisdiction to prohibit unfair competition and unfair or deceptive acts.
Terms to Know
- Sherman Act - A federal law that prohibits monopolies by limiting certain business practices, such as price fixing
- Clayton Act - An amendment to the Sherman Act that places restrictions on mergers and acquisitions on companies that could lead to monopolies or other unfair business competition
- Department of Justice (DOJ) - Federal law enforcement charged with investigating and enforcing federal laws, including antitrust laws such as the Sherman and Clayton acts
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - A federal agency that seeks to promote free and fair competition in interstate commerce by protecting consumers from unfair competition tactics
- Monopoly - The exclusive control of a particular market, including the power to control prices and exclude competition
- Price Fixing - A usually illegal process of artificially dictating prices, rather than allowing the market and consumers determine prices through supply and demand
Other Considerations When Hiring an Antitrust and Trade Regulation Lawyer
Most antitrust issues arise when the DOJ or FTC investigates large companies about to merge. The mergers are often in the same industry and may involve unfair business tactics or outcomes. In these cases, the antitrust lawyers involved are usually the company's corporate attorneys. However, some corporations may not have an in-house antitrust specialist, so they may seek to hire an attorney who specializes in antitrust.
Smaller corporations and businesses may also be involved in antitrust issues. Small businesses often file complaints about unfair competition with the FTC. These businesses often hire antitrust attorneys in order to ensure that the process for filing a complaint is followed and to help make the most persuasive case for government action.
If you or your business is involved in an antitrust or trade regulation issue, contact an antitrust lawyer immediately to protect your rights and explore your legal options.
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