Obama 'Ignites' Next-Gen Broadband

President Obama signed an executive order this week to launch US Ignite, a major communications initiative that combines corporate, government, and non-profit organizations in 25 cities to create a national high-speed broadband network. The program is designed to promote the country's leadership in developing applications for ultra-fast broadband services running nearly 100-times faster than current internet speeds.

US Ignite includes more than 100 private interests, local governments, federal agencies, public and private universities and major corporations in technology and communications to develop a national 1 gig network connecting communities and schools. Official line from the White House says the new system will "improve services to Americans and drive job creation, promote innovation, and create new markets for businesses." Noted industry participants include Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Cisco, Juniper, NEC, and HP.

The President also signed a 'dig once' order aimed at establishing a national standard for broadband construction along federal roads designed to help save costs and increase efficiency. The order requires agencies develop uniform master contracts for accessing and leasing federal land to support "streamlined" broadband deployment.

In response, ACA President & CEO Matt Polka said the order should help stimulate broadband deployment and strengthen the economy through increased private investment and job creation.

"In the last decade, ACA members have been aggressively deploying broadband in smaller markets and rural areas, and these operators are continuously looking to make further investments in unserved and underserved areas," he said. "However, these opportunities are far too often delayed or derailed because of the inability to receive necessary or timely rights of way on reasonable terms, including over federal land."

Polka added that the ACA is especially pleased with the 'dig once' provision as it reduces the cost of laying fiber-optic lines and makes more efficient use of scarce road-construction dollars provided by taxpayers. "A true win-win for industry and the public," he said. •

Big Media's Internet Real-Estate Bid

It's unquestionably the largest-ever expansion of the internet's naming system, and companies across the globe have gotten involved in snatching up the latest wave of e-real estate. With the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) revealing the results to its internet address sale, here's the Morning BRIDGE's best attempt at keeping score of who bought what...

For starters, ICANN said it received 1,930 applications from 60 countries for new internet suffixes known as known as 'top-level domains' (TLDs). The group charged $185K for each TLD with an additional $5K deposit. Initial calculations peg the total haul for the organization at more than $350M.

ICANN said there were several instances of separate entities bidding for the same TLD. In this scenario, the group said, applicants are "encouraged to resolve (disputes) among themselves" prior to the bidding process coming to an end. If sides can't resolve issues on their own, then disputes will be resolved by "community evaluation" or auction. The TDLs with the most shared applications include: .app (13), .inc and .home (11), .shop (9), and .music (8).

Some notable results include:

Google (101): .book, .shop, .android, .cloud, .google, .youtube, .baby, .eat, .love, .lol, .corp, .day, .dev, .diy, .dog, .film, .gmail, .kid, .tube, .zip

Amazon (76): including: .author, .book, .buy, .drive, .fast, .free, .pay, .mobile, .music, .read, .save, .search, .shop, .songs, .tunes, and .video

DISH: .dish, .sling, .direct, .dtv, .blockbuster, .dot, .data, .dvr, .latino, .locker, .mobile, .movie, .ollo, .ott, .phone, .stream, .hughes,

Microsoft: .bing, .hotmail, .docs, .live, .office, .skydrive, .skpe, .windows, .xbox and .microsoft

Lifestyle Domain Holdings (i.e. not Scripps): .hgtv, .cookingchannel, .foodnetwork --- Comcast: .xfinity and .comcast --- The Weather Channel: .weather and .weatherchannel --- ABC: .abc --- CBS: .cbs and .showtime --- HBO: .hbo --- Apple: .apple --- Netflix: .netflix --- Cisco: .cisco --- Sony: .sony --- Frontier Communications: .frontier
 
Click here for the entire results.  •

Dems Want SpectrumCo Scrutiny - BSkyB Nets EPL - Another Cablevision Defector

Rules & Regs: Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), together with Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and a group of House Democrats sent letters to all members of the FCC and Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday urging them to "closely scrutinize" the proposed spectrum deal between Verizon Wireless and SpectrumCo. for impacts on competition and services. --- The FCC is seeking comment on how public safety use of the 4.9 GHz band can best promote its goal of establishing a nationwide public safety broadband network in the 700 MHz band. --- The FCC also increased the number of "identifier codes" it assigns to companies requesting equipment authorizations to account for the wave of new applicants seeking approval for a variety of wireless devices.

Gov't: CenturyLink landed a 5-year $233M contract to provide managed data networking services to the Social Security Administration. --- The State Department is going to buy $16.5M worth of Kindle tablets from Amazon (7M units annually) for libraries, culture centers and such.

M&A: Microsoft is said to be in talks to buy social networking operator Yammer for ~$1B.

WebTV: Amazon inked a major licensing deal with MGM for the  studio's film titles. MGM already has streaming deals in place with Netflix and YouTube. --- Netflix is said to be testing a redesign of its website that separates films from TV shows into multiple subcategories.

Service: Time Warner Cable is launching a new cloud-based interactive programming guide for digital subs in Charlotte and upstate NY. --- Disney is developing three new apps for the iPhone and iPad that will stream Disney content to authenticated Comcast Xfinity subs. --- Western Digital said it would enter the home networking biz focusing specifically on premium video streaming and gaming products.

Disputes: DISH and Hoak settled their dispute resulting in the broadcaster's 14 stations being returned to DISH's line-up.

Dist.: Time Warner Cable added Azteca America to its basic tier in NYC.

Labor: Nokia's reorganization plan has expanded to an additional 10K job cuts. --- More bad news from the New Orleans Times-Picayune cuts: 600 more layoffs (plus the initial 200).

Ratings: GolTV scored the highest ratings in network history for its coverage of the international friendly between Argentina v. Brazil on June 9. Argentina won 4-3 in front of 82K at MetLife Stadium in NY.

How Soon?  You know they're kicking *** ... but by just how much?  And how are they doing it?  And, oh by the way, how long before they're a  true monopoly?  Learn more in The BRIDGE coming to subscribers on Monday, June 18.

Not a subscriber?  For shame!  You can sign up today for just $667/year ... or wait a bit and pay $1000/year.   (Price changes on July 1, 2012.)  Make sure you get the numbers by subscribing via PayPal or contact Gina Rayne:  gina@mediabiz.com.

Over, Up, & Under: BSkyB secured distribution rights to 5 of 7 packages of live Premiere League games through 2016. The company will pay £760M ($1.2B) per year for 116 matches per season. BT purchased the other 2 packages for a total £3B ($4.65B). --- Vector Capital has increased its offer for Technicolor from €1.90 to €2 per share. --- Viaccess and Orca said they are merging management structures to "future-proof" their pay-TV solutions. Ha. The announcement comes on the heals of Orange's planned IPTV migration to the companies' combined unified platform. --- Deutsche Telekom is prepping a TV Everywhere service called Entertain2Go for tablets, PCs and smartphones. --- UTStarcom will supply Sri Lanka Telecom with IPTV STBs.

People: The defection continues... Former Cablevision engineering EVP Scott Weber has joined Charter has EVP of network operations. --- Time Warner Cable promoted long-time company man Jack Herbert to regional VP of operations (midwest). --- Netflix promoted Bill Holmes to chief of business development.

Kudos: Rhode Island's family-owned indie cable company Full Channel is celebrating 30 years in business.

XXX: Four adult film companies have filed copyright infringement lawsuits against 88 Comcast cable modem customers alleging illegal downloads of porn through BitTorrent. Comcast has been subpoenaed to identify the subscribers, which the cable company is refusing to do.

--- Catch today's media market news in The Evening BRIDGE. •