broadcasters

WASHINGTON--The wireless and TV broadcasting industries faced off for the first time at a congressional subcommittee meeting on the Hill on Tuesday, setting in motion what could be a long drawn out battle over whether wireless spectrum should be reallocated and where the government will get this new spectrum.

Steve Largent, president and CEO of CTIA, the wireless industry group, and Gordon Smith of the National Association of Broadcasters, were among the witnesses gathered before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet to discuss what the CTIA and the Federal Communications Commission have … Read more

It's the day before Thanksgiving and CNET's The 404 Podcast has a lot to be thankful for. As we go around the circle from Wilson, to me, then to our special guests Natali Del Conte of CNET's Loaded and Tim Geisenheimer, we realize we all have something in common: we're all very very thankful to Les Moonves for signing our paychecks twice a month! We're also want to give a big shoutout to all The 404 listeners and chat roomies- you guys put up with our idiocy on a daily basis and keep coming back for more, and we can't thank you enough for the support!

Natali always brings the best stories to the show, and today (after a very strange confessional to Justin) she tell us that New York might seize control of your XBox 360, Sony Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii. Similar to the emergency broadcast interruptions on your television, a new notification system will debut next year that will pause your gaming and warn you about imminent dangers, severe weather alerts, and other life-threatening situations. Unfortunately for Tim, it won't help you talk trash back to your 12 year old competition in Modern Warfare.

As with most of The 404's episodes that come at the end of the week, today's show skips around and derails a lot. We get into a lengthy debate about Harry Potter vs. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Ninja Assassin, a man marrying a video game character, and even play a listener-submitted 404 theme remix. Thanks, Same Slim!

The most important thing to learn from today's episode comes from Natali and today's episode of Loaded: watch the episode and head over to www.nonprofitshoppingmall.com, where any money you spend through their retail partners will get routed do a nonprofit organization of your choice. It's very easy and only takes a few minutes to set up, so do your part and join the cause!

No more shows for the rest of this Thanksgiving week, but we'll be back on Monday so give us a call at 1-866-404-CNET or e-mail at the404(at)cnet[dot]com and let us know how you're spending the long weekend. Have fun and be safe, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Forgive me but I have to plug something my company (Frog Design) is involved in. I'm only doing this because it is such a neat event: In collaboration with Frog, NPR will host a unique Digital Think In this Friday in our offices in San Francisco, bringing together 60 thought leaders at the intersection of media and technology to explore new approaches to content creation, distribution, and funding for NPR and NPR member stations.

Hosted by NPR CEO and President Vivian Schiller and Digital Media SVP and General Manager Kinsey Wilson, the Think In will harness the collective expertise … Read more

Songwriters, composers, and music publishers are making preparations to one day collect performance fees from Apple and other e-tailers for not just traditional music downloads but for downloads of films and TV shows as well. Those downloads contain music after all.

These groups even want compensation for iTunes' 30-second song samples.

At a time when many iTunes shoppers are still fuming over Apple's first-ever increase in song prices, the demands by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), and other performing-rights groups, would likely lead to more price hikes at iTunes. For many, … Read more

Article updated 8/5/09 at 3:00 pm PT to clarify Qik's YouTube uploading capabilties.

It's been about a month since Qik for Android became available on the Android Market as an open alpha version. Since then, Qik has been feverishly updating its video streaming and broadcasting app. Starting Wednesday, Qik for Android (version 0.1.3) lets you trim captured videos and more speedily share them with friends, or post them to social networks.

Qik's editing mechanism comes in the form of a slider tool. It's not immediately clear how to get to this … Read more

Update 3:29 p.m. PDT: Added quotes from the National Association of Broadcasters.

Internet radio has to pay performance rights but broadcast stations get a free pass.

Billy Corgan, founder of the rock band Smashing Pumpkins, told Congress on Tuesday that must change.

"This issue is one of fundamental fairness," Corgan told lawmakers. "If the performance of a song has value to a particular terrestrial radio station in its airing, I believe it is only right to compensate those performers who have created this work.

"Simply put, if a station plays a song, both the … Read more

Troubled Sirius XM Radio announced Tuesday, following reports, that it will accept an investment from cable giant Liberty Media.

The investment, which will save the satellite radio company from bankruptcy or a hostile takeover, will take the form of $530 million in loans in exchange for an equity stake.

The first phase of the investment will consist of a $280 million loan, $250 million of which will be funded immediately on Tuesday, a statement from Sirius XM noted. The second phase, a $150 million loan, will be aimed specifically at the company's XM Satellite Radio subsidiary. Liberty, which owns … Read more

Apple is an Internet retailer and Netflix is a Web video rental service, but Hollywood treats them as if they are potential competitors to TV broadcasters.

In the past two weeks, customers of iTunes and Netflix's streaming digital-movie service have noticed that a growing number of titles are disappearing from the sites or are scheduled to be removed. MacWorld wrote a story last week about how one of the site's contributors noticed that of the 15 films he bookmarked for future viewing at iTunes, 9 were no longer available. Among the movies that vanished were Charlie Wilson's … Read more

On Monday night video-broadcasting platform Kyte is launching several new ways to make money with its service. Included are two new ad servers from AdTech Helios IQ and Lightningcast, as well as a new option to pick up Google AdSense (for video) which includes pre-roll, graphic display ads, and endcap text ads. These join Kyte's internal ad manager, and help fill out any ad inventory depending on how popular your shows are.

It's worth noting all of this is still only for pre-recorded content, and as such can't be used for monetizing live streaming shows. I'm … Read more