I received an email from a reader informing me about an interesting email she had just received. According to this email from the CEO of an independent TV station, the FCC is using your tax dollars to buy up every independent TV station in the country with the purported purpose to “improve” cell phone service and video on demand. My bullshit meter immediately flashes red.
We already know five corporations control 80% of the broadcasting outlets in this country and collude with the government and Wall Street to keep the sheep ignorant with ruling class sanctioned propaganda. We also know the government wants to control the internet through the FCC, using SOPA. Now we find out the government is using your tax dollars to buy up and eliminate independent TV stations across the country. They couldn’t possibly be attempting to squelch dissenting viewpoints from reaching the public. Could they?
Do you think your tax dollars should be used to reduce your ability to hear dissenting opinions?
Last week, we conducted a series of conference calls regarding MiND’s role in the broadcasting community, offering a unique combination of international, music, documentary and short-form programming. As we are contemplating some changes, we have decided to schedule two more viewer-input telephone conference calls and two public forums to be held at the MiND office. I hope you will find an hour to join us (the schedule is below).
Recently, the FCC (the Federal government agency which controls TV and radio licenses) contacted every TV station in the U.S. The FCC wants to purchase many TV broadcast licenses in order to supply wireless telephone carriers (such as Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, etc.) with additional bandwidth. This bandwidth will enable better cell phone service and improved video-on-demand on mobile devices.
As you may know, our TV license is owned and operated by a nonprofit organization. The decision to continue as a broadcaster will be made by our organization’s Board of Directors. This is completely our organization’s decision. The government agency is simply making an offer to all television stations in the country; some stations will choose to accept the offer, and some will not.
The television industry is changing. Many of the programs seen on MiND’s channels are available from other sources. As a result, we are asking questions about the best way to serve the public interest: in the digital era, operating a television station is one of several available options.
If we decide to stop broadcasting, we plan to invest the funds to develop new and exciting forms of public media for television, the Internet and other venues. Regardless of whether we continue to operate a TV station, our mission remains the same: to help people learn and understand the world.
And if we decide to stop broadcasting, we plan to find a new home for most of the programs and MiND channels so that you will be able to continue to watch them with minimal interruption.
If you are interested in joining us for one of these conversations by phone or in person, please send an email with the subject line “Public Forum RSVP” to [email protected] and include the following information:
(1) Name
(2) Zip Code
(3) Email address
(4) Session you would like to attend:
If you have questions, or would like to schedule an individual conversation with me, please send an email to the above address and we’ll set up a time to talk.
Thank you for watching the MiND channels, and for your willingness to participate in this important decision.
Best,
Howard Blumenthal
CEO, MiND: Media Independence
I know the FCC is looking for more spectrum to serve the wireless guys. They should already have a ton of white space since TV has switched to Digital, the TV broadcasters are using much less spectrum than Analog. I sniff around a bit and couldn’t find anything specific to Admin’s post, however I did find a couple of related articles:
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/gao-outlines-broadcastwireless-ad-battle-over-spectrum/134143
http://www.multichannel.com/news/broadband/fcc-explore-high-frequencies-broadband/384831
IMO the way they switched TV to Digital was a raw deal for consumers. Used to be with an outdoor antenna and booster, you could receive a great signal & even out-of-town stations marginally. Now, with the lowered power transmitters & “all or nothing” reception, it’s very difficult to get signals even with an outdoor rig. It’s had the effect of pushing consumers to cable/sat, and I think that’s why many are fed up with TeeVee. All I can get here is foreign language shit including a CHINESE network! And I’m in the LA TV market!
@Westcoaster
I have not had cable TV for five and a half years. We get super HD quality TV with a amped antennae that cost $29. I think we get 41channels of the same crap that’s on cable TV for free. With Netflix and amazon fire TV plus amazon prime streaming I can’t possibly watch all the content at my finger tips. You need to get an amped antennae.
US Taxpayers Pay For SEC To Arrange Early Release Of Data To HFTs
Submitted by Sal Arnuk & Joe Saluzzi, via Themis Trading,
wait-what
The SEC reportedly does not like trading on information that is not yet public. Just ask SAC Capital, or if you prefer, watch the plethora of insider trading SEC news conferences in general.
Why, even this morning there is a WSJ story about the SEC’s investigation into the early leak and release of Medicare cancer related funding data , which is an investigation into a different government agency!
And remember last year, when the SEC began investigating Thompson Reuter’s early release of ISM data to certain high speed subscribers. While the SEC brought no charges against Thompson Reuters, the data firm did subsequently suspend its “tiered release” practice:
On Monday, Thomson Reuters announced that it was suspending a so-called “tiered release” of market moving data to elite clients. The data and news service had been selling the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment numbers to paying clients at 9:54:58 on release days—two seconds before the information went to a broader set of clients at 9:55 am. That created an opportunity for high speed trading firms to rake in profits before the rest of the market knew which direction the impending news would propel trading.
(As an aside, AG Schneiderman brought public attention to that story, before the SEC began “looking into” Thompson Reuters’s practices, just as his office brought attention to the dark pool practices before the SEC began investigating those.)
Let’s fast forward, shall we?
* * *
Yesterday evening Scott Patterson, author of Dark Pools, published a Wall Street Journal story titled Fast Traders Are Getting Data From SEC Seconds Early. Apparently, two separate academic studies (University of Colorado / University of Chicago, and Columbia University) have found a lag between when paying subscribers received SEC Edgar filings, and when the public did on the SEC’s own website.
What Does This Mean? Does This Affect Anyone?
Any time a company files a report with the SEC, noting insider buying or selling by its officers for example, that document becomes public and viewable on the SEC’s website, EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval). From the WSJ article:
When a company submits a document, the contractor forwards it to the Edgar subscribers and to the SEC website “at the same time,” according to the SEC. But the studies suggest that the SEC website can take anywhere from 10 seconds to more than a minute to post the documents, giving an advantage to the Edgar subscribers or their customers, who are often professional investors.
The SEC contracts an outside firm to run this database. This outside firm is currently Attain LLC, but it used to be NTT Data at the time the academic studies were conducted. These firms have about 40 subscribers who pay $1500 /month or $720,000 per year in revenue, in addition to the revenue these data firms receive from the SEC (US taxpayers). One of their subscribers is a firm called The Washington Service, and they even advertise the “speed and availability benefits of a value-added EDGAR or real-time insider data feed” on their website. Subscribing firms like the Washington Service in turn sell the fast access to other firms, like high speed trading firms, for undisclosed amounts.
Anyone trading in the market place during any of the thousands of company releases on EDGAR is of course affected. Prices move quickly and volumes surge as the early recipients get the information and trade ahead of the public.
What does the SEC say about this?
“We have reviewed the working paper and are taking the issues raised by it seriously. We are conducting a thorough assessment of the dissemination process, including timing increments, and will make any systems modifications that may be necessary to optimize the dissemination of information to investors and the markets.”
Some Questions.
1) How could the SEC investigate early release of University of Michigan data last year while this practice is going on with their own data?
2) How can the SEC investigate a competing government agency about the early release of Medicare payment policies, while they are a stakeholder themselves in the “selling data early” game?
3) Does the fact that the agency is a stakeholder in the high speed trading / market structure debate color their objectivity and role as top cop?
4) Could we have imagined anything more far-fetched and unlikely as this practice by the SEC itself?
We’ll answer the last question. No
SEC- We are conducting a thorough assessment. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…Stop it my sides are hurting…………HAHAHAHAHAHAHA……..SURE THEY ARE!!!!
the beast marches on
WSJ only place seen this covered. Showed FCC’s expected prices to entice broadcast stations,
http://online.wsj.com/articles/fcc-makes-pitch-for-tv-stations-spectrum-1412136002
second article points out how smaller Indies will be lost.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/fcc-delays-auction-of-tv-airwaves-for-mobile-broadband-1414174827