Beccaning Call

O RLY? A big scientist, you say?

THE WEEKEND NET NEUTRALITY SITUATION EXTRAVAGANZA!

All anyone seems to know about NN is the "two-tiered internet" description. Which is right, but it's a pretty interesting and complicated issue. Since i'm a huge dork and keep reading about it, here's some fun/interesting/slighty-terrifying-bc-these-people-run-the-country info for ya.

Section A = Senator Ted Stevens.

1. Who is he? R-Alaska, current president pro tempore of Congress, current chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

2. Why do we care? He's the "internet is a series of tubes" guy.

3. "Senator Open to TV Chat about Internet "Tubes"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mocked by comedian Jon Stewart for calling the Internet a bunch of tubes, U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens said on Thursday he is open to going on Stewart's popular "Daily Show" for a rebuttal.

...

Stevens, whose committee has authority over many Internet issues, defended his comments and said he had even received support from experts.

"I have a letter from a big scientist who said I was absolutely right in using the word 'tubes,"' he told reporters.

4. Daily Show: Jon Stewart on Net Neutrality



5. Older Daily Show Ted Stevens and Robert Byrd: COOTOFF!



6. "Does Rupert Murdoch's DIRECTTV Own Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens?"

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the powerful chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, is pushing legislation that could give the Rupert Murdoch owned-DIRECTV a huge advantage over the cable TV industry.

Ted Stevens Stevens has not explained why he supports the legislation, but nearly 10 percent of the senator's 2005-2006 individual campaign contributions have come from employees of companies owned by Murdoch, such as News Corp., Fox and DIRECTV.

...

As Senate Commerce Committee Chairman, Stevens is sponsoring a new telecommunications bill that would require cable TV operators to carry all Digital TV signals from local stations; this is known as 'must-carry.'

The cable industry wants to only carry the station's primary feed, saying the extra digital signals would take up too much space on their systems. (The primary feed would offer primetime network programming and other regularly scheduled shows; the extra feeds might include special channels for local weather broadcasts and Video on Demand services.)

But Multichannel News' Ted Hearn reports in this week's issue that Stevens has inserted language in the bill that cable operators would have to carry "any digital video signal." The magazine quotes Stevens as saying the new language is intended to impose digital 'must-carry' on the cable operators.

But what about the satellite TV providers, EchoStar and the Murdoch-owned DIRECTV?

Multichannel News reports that Stevens' aides blocked an amendment by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) that would permit both cable and satellite TV operators to carry just the "primary video" feed rather than "any digital video signal."

Consequently, as Stevens' bill now stands, cable TV operators would be required to carry all local Digital TV signals while DIRECTV and EchoStar would not. If the language becomes law, this would give the satellite TV operators more flexibility in what channels and services they want to offer.

It also could save DIRECTV and EchoStar considerable money because they wouldn't have to create space for the extra channels.

posted by Becca @ 4:33 PM