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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (1944)	2/5/2001 8:13:29 PM
From: ftth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 46821

Broadband Bill Could Benefit Corning Fiber by DAVID CONNELL Cable World, Feb 5, 2001 A new Senate bill boosting broadband could have a corporate sponsor, and it's not a major MSO. Corning - yes, the glass people - is apparently behind a new U.S. Senate bill auspiciously designed to bring broadband services to rural areas. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and 30 other co-sponsors would provide tax breaks for companies that build out broadband systems in rural areas. The Broadband Internet Access Act of 2001 would provide a 10% tax credit to companies that provide a download data rate of 1.5 megabits per second and an upload speed of 200 kilobits per second. Future systems that download data at 22 Mbps and upload at 5 Mbps would receive a 20% tax increase. According to lobbyists following the bill, no cable or satellite system could possibly qualify for the 20% tax break, and the only system that could reach those speeds would require fiber optic wiring to the home. Corning, one of the nation's top producers of fiber optic lines, would potentially benefit from such a system. The company, lobbyists say, pushed a similar bill last session when it was proposed by former Sen. Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., and is behind this year's measure. They added that while cable has built out broadband services that serve virtually the entire country [HUH???], and satellite broadband services have achieved a national footprint without assistance from the government, the 20% tax break could end up subsidizing fiber services that have yet to develop. The Satellite Industries Association and the National Cable Television Association are discussing the bill with its sponsors, but have yet to make definitive decisions on whether or not to support it. [Gee I wonder....] NCTA spokesman David Beckwith says the group "has a problem" with the 20% tax break for services that have yet to be rolled out. [Oh there's a surprise!] "Our general concern is we want to make sure it's nondiscriminatory from a technology standpoint and that our members are eligible for all its benefits," Beckwith says. [Nondiscriminatory????? What a laugher!!! So he's effectively saying their cable systems are handicapped?? Or that their little monopoly is a minority??? Incapable of competing in the future, because of bad deployment decisions of the past???] However, he adds the NCTA is not in active opposition to the bill. SIA executive director Clay Mowry agreed with Beckwith, saying the association is "broadly supportive of what they want to do with the bill" but is suspicious of the speeds needed to win the 20% tax credit. [Nothing like asking the 2 groups most likely to oppose it!] Staffers for Sen. Rockefeller did not return phone calls by press time. Alan McGlade SVP-programming A&E Network 100 Centre Street is the first dramatic series being shot in HDTV. Why did you choose that format? This was really a Hail Mary pass. We'd been looking for a drama series for some time and heard that Sidney (Lumet) had written a show. We immediately got it and loved it, and Sidney said, "If you're going to get me to do the show, then it obviously makes sense for me to do the show in New York." We told him the only way we were going to be able to afford that is if he would examine and look and see if HDTV will provide the efficiencies. When did HDTV first catch your attention? We've all heard that digital and 1,001 variations are coming, and they're going to change the world. My response to that is when it changes the world, I'll catch up. So the Hail Mary aspect was not based on a whole lot other than reportage that said, `It's evolving, it's evolving.' 100 Centre Street is a pretty gritty show. HDTV adds an immediacy; it's not artificial looking. I do believe you will see the lion's share of one-hour dramatic series shot on HDTV within two to three years. Has this expanded your original programming budget? The lion's share of our programming has been documentary and reality-based series. Shows like Biography are obviously much more cost-efficient - i.e. cheaper - than a drama. So 100 Centre Street is an enormous increase in investment for us. But the flip side is we are doing this show for substantially less than the comparable network one-hour film, and that's because of the efficiencies we could get by doing it in HDTV. The video-on-demand provider Intertainer has no specific plans to alter its a la carte subscriber model to include a subscription service. A story in the Jan. 22 issue erroneously quoted Intertainer as saying it would consider adding to its model if it did a deal with Starz!/Encore Networks. Intertainer says it will not comment about any talks with the company nor would it speak hypothetically about such a deal. Intertainer did say that it was always possible that sometime in the future it would consider amending its subscriber model. telecomclick.com