This Study Shows Why Retailers Should Ramp Up Their Email Game for Millennials (Ad Week)
Epsilon’s new shopper behavior study may be the latest indication that millennial consumers are no longer spring chickens. In fact, they are using—and hold on to your ironic fedoras, folks—email more than people of other ages to find products and services.
Wheeler: FCC Accelerating Post-Auction Repack Planning (Broadcasting & Cable)
The National Association of Broadcasters said the FCC should start planning for the post-incentive auction repack ASAP and FCC chair Tom Wheeler appears already to be on the same page. In prepared testimony, Wheeler said the FCC has already “begun to pivot and to accelerate our planning for the post-auction transition.”
Wheeler Gets Some Democratic Pushback at Hill Hearing (Broadcasting & Cable)
FCC chair Tom Wheeler took some heat from both sides of the aisle in a sometimes tense and contentious almost-three-hour FCC oversight hearing in the House Communications Subcommittee on some hot-button issues including the FCC’s set-top proposal and the chair’s lack of enthusiasm for an inquiry into political ad disclosure.
SEATTLE MAYOR: MUNICIPAL BROADBAND TOO COSTLY; PUBLIC-PRIVATE DEAL IS WAY TO GO (Seattle Times)
The best way to expand Internet access in Seattle is through public-private partnerships, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said. The mayor reiterated the position he formed after a city-commissioned study released last summer showed it would cost between $480 million and $665 million to build out a municipal-broadband network across the city.
Brussels attacks could alter Apple-FBI battle (USA Today)
The government blinked in its fight with Apple over the San Bernardino iPhone. But this landmark privacy battle is far from over, say legal experts, especially with public opinion likely to swing again toward national security after the latest terrorist attacks in Belgium. “It’s another turn in a long road,” says associate professor Mark Grabowski.
Apple Policy on Bugs May Explain Why Hackers Would Help F.B.I. (NY Times)
After a third party went to the F.B.I. with claims of being able to unlock an iPhone, many in the security industry said they were not surprised that the third party did not go to Apple. Apple does not pay hackers to find and report bugs, which may explain why a third party has offered to help the government break into an iPhone.
Study: 70 Percent of U.S. Consumers Binge Watch TV (Hollywood Reporter)
A new survey has found that 70 percent of U.S. consumers binge watch television. Within that percentile, viewers watch an average of five episodes at a time, Deloitte’s 10th edition of its annual Digital Democracy Survey revealed. The survey also found that one third (31 percent) of viewers binge TV on a weekly basis.
The Syrian Electronic Army was careless with Gmail, Facebook (Network World)
Three men who allegedly were part of a multi-year hacking campaign with the Syrian Electronic Army left a long digital trail that didn’t make them hard to identify, according to court documents. The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed charges against the men, who are accused of hacking companies and defacing websites.
NYT Stumps for FCC Privacy Rules with Few Facts (Inside Sources- Commentary)
The New York Times is backing new privacy rules for Internet service providers that the FCC will vote on later this month, but is doing so with few facts outside reworded bullet points from the agency itself. Earlier the FCC announced new regulations to govern how ISPs handle user data, including limitations on when ISPs can share.
Don’t Act Surprised by How Net Neutrality Rules Were Written (Inside Sources- Commentary)
The Johnson report on how the FCC arrived at its decision to reclassify ISPs as common carriers under Title II is a 30 page version of that wonderful 20 seconds in Casablanca—Inspector Renault says “I’m shocked, shocked, to find that gambling going on in here” and then is provided his winnings.
How OTT Cos. Have Skin In FCC Set-Top Game (Investors)
FCC Chair Tom Wheeler aims to throw open the set-top box market, a plan that has Comcast, AT&T and other pay-TV providers steaming but could take years to play out. The FCC plans to make it easier for consumers to switch from set-top boxes leased monthly from pay-TV companies to new devices sold at retail.
Blendle Wants to Sell You Journalism on the Web, One Story at a Time (Recode)
How much would you pay to read this story? Okay. Wrong question. Let’s try it again: How much would you pay to read a single story from a digital newspaper or magazine with a subscription paywall, like … the New York Times?
How does somewhere between 19 cents and 39 cents sound? That’s the premise behind Blendle.
Streaming Is Officially the Biggest Part of the Music Business, Which Wants YouTube to Pay Up (Recode)
The music business has been turning into the music streaming business for several years now, but here’s another indicator of the way things are going: Last year, streaming services generated more revenue than any other kind of music sales in the U.S. But the big music labels think they can get much more than that.