Media Industries Project - Carsey Wolf Center

The Universal Music Group could rewrite U.S. music pricing when it tests a new frontline pricing structure, which is designed to get single CDs in stores at $10, or below. Beginning in the second quarter and continuing through most of the year, the company's Velocity program will test lower CD prices. Single CDs will have the suggested list prices of $10, $9, $8, $7 and $6.

"The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) called on Thursday for public comment on the proposed merger between cable operator Comcast Corp and broadcaster NBC Universal. The media industry regulator is seeking comments and petitions by a deadline of May 3 and expects to respond to comments by June 2. It has set a final date of June 17 to respond to any further responses or oppositions."

"Time Warner Inc. is considering a bid of $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. film studio, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions, as second-round offers come due tomorrow. Warner Bros. executives, including Chief Executive Officer Barry Meyer and Chief Operating Officer Alan Horn, will iron out a possible price tomorrow with Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, said one of the people, who declined to be named because the talks are private. Time Warner may decide not to make an offer, the people said."

"Court documents in the $1 billion lawsuit between Viacom and YouTube were unsealed today, finally shedding some light on key questions: did Viacom have "smoking gun" evidence that YouTube was deliberately profiting from 62,637 Viacom clips that were watched more than 507 million times on the site? Was Google aware of the copyright infringement problems when it purchased YouTube in 2006? Were YouTube's own founders involved in uploading unauthorized materials?"

Google may close its Chinese branch over the government's desire to censor search results.

PC Magazine reports on the FCC's proposal to auction off airwaves freed up by the digital conversion in an effort to increase spectrum for mobile phone application development.

This blog post explores reasons behind industry reluctance for ISPs to be reclassified under common carriage and Telecommunications regulation.

Broadband companies are questioning the FCC's ability to regulate the Internet over fears they may be regulated similar to telephone companies. Chariman Genachowski remains adamant he will push ahead.

The FCC is encouraging consumers to test their broadband speeds, and different areas of the country are showing some interesting results: D.C. and the greater Washington and New York areas enjoy the fastest service, with California performing slower than expected.

Global 3D television channel to launch in UK on April 3rd.

New social media tracking tool launches. Unlike google alerts, Trackur searches tweets and other social media.

NBC, with its exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics, cut away from the closing ceremonies to debut its new marriage show starring Jerry Seinfeld. Outraged viewers took to twitter, and the incident raised an interesting question of balancing exclusive rights against commercial interests.

What impact does media consolidation have on creative programming? This blog post explores the impact of media ownership on programming and creative labor, with quotes from WGA President John Wells.

This blog post situates the ambitious Google Fiber project against recently announced FCC plans to spur faster broadband development. The article also discusses issues of media regulation, specifically pricing and competition.

Op-ed arguing that allegations linking Net Neutrality and copyright infrignement are spurious. The piece illuminates interesting aspects of the debate, including the role of legitimate user generated content and as well as civil liberty issues.

Consumer watchdog groups complained to the FCC about cable conglomerates using "hostage taking" as a negotiating tactic. The groups referenced the subscription rate battles that threatened to keep consumers from watching the Super Bowl and the Oscars in a recent letter to the FCC.

Google teams up with Sony and others to push television beyond the TV set and computer. Google TV aims to be on google operating systems by summer 2010, and challenges Apple.

"The details as to how the FCC plans to go from having 50 MHz available for mobile broadband today to 500 MHz in 10 years will result in a pretty big legislative battle as the FCC tries to nab broadcaster spectrum and incumbents and tech firms position to own large chunks of those valuable airwaves."

COO John Schappert says digital revenue will still be tied to shiny discs for years to come, expresses regret that Modern Warfare 2 developers will be spending time making court cases instead of games.

A Rhode Island Bill that proposes fines and possible jail time for retail employees that sell Mature(M) or Adults Only (AO) rated games to underage consumers has drawn backing from the Parents Television Council (PTC).