Online Video Could Get a Boost From Proposed Laws

Lawmakers have introduced at least three different bills that would reshape the consumer video market, including online video, similar to efforts used to boost the satellite industry in the 1990s. None of the bills is expected to pass right away, and companies looking to expand in online video remain uncertain how far Congress will open the door for them.

read more

AT&T’s Sponsored Data is bad for the internet, the economy, and you

AT&T’s Sponsored Data program is a way for AT&T to levy taxes on companies who can afford to pay. That has huge implications for the free market of the internet.

read more

When Ads Look Like Content

The Federal Trade Commission on Dec 4 will host an informal workshop for advertisers, publishers and legal experts titled "Blurred Lines: Advertising or Content?" to discuss whether media outlets are adequately identifying sponsored stories on their websites as promotional pitches, and to consider if consumers might be misled.

read more

Video Streaming Continues To Gain Acceptance Among TV Viewers

Streaming video on a connected TV device is now the second most popular way for adults 18-49 to view primetime TV programming behind watching traditional live television, according to a recently completed survey commissioned by Crackle, the unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment that offers ad-supported on-demand streaming video programming.

read more

A new way to skin the net neutrality cat

The main trouble with the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality rules is that the rules, as written, don’t really address the problem they’re trying to remedy. They attempt to regulate what is essentially anti-competitive behavior by Internet service providers, or the potential for anti-competitive behavior, by treating it as a matter of communications law, instead of antitrust law.

read more

Radio broadcasters face challenge from tech heavyweights

Radio remains the world’s most popular form of media in terms of audience, with listener figures at their highest levels in decades. But broadcasters face some of their fiercest competition for years as the world’s biggest technology companies – including Apple and Google – take aim at their business.

read more

Our tweets are getting shorter

Tweets have been getting shorter and shorter.

read more

California driving Internet privacy policy

With the federal government and technology policy shut down in Washington, California is steaming ahead with a series of online privacy laws that will have broad implications for Internet companies and consumers.

read more

Think piracy is killing the music industry? This chart suggests otherwise.

For more than a decade, the recording industry has been complaining that online copyright infringement is devastating the music industry. And it's true that the revenues of conventional record labels have plunged in recent years. But if you look at the bigger picture, things don't look so grim.

read more

Black Americans find their voice on Twitter forums

Like most early Twitter users, many young black Americans initially took to microblogging to follow celebrities or send short, quick messages to friends on their phones, but the site has since grown to become an important forum to discuss broad issues around race in America.

read more