The FCC released a report this week concluding there’s too much violence on TV and that it’s harmful to children. Further, the Commission urged Congress to enact limits on violent content and pushed for a la carte delivery of cable channels. We haven’t digested the report yet, so we can’t comment on all of its conclusions and content. But we do know that managing what children see, and don’t see, on TV is of critical concern for our customers.

While we believe in a customer’s right to choose the programming that is right for them, we know not all programming is appropriate for all members of the family. At Cox, we think a big part of the answer is ensuring customers have the tools to make viewing choices that are appropriate for their family. We’ve found that by providing our customers not only the right resources, but also the right education on how to use them, they can and do effectively manage TV viewing in their home and are empowered to make smart choices for their family. That’s the primary goal of our Take Charge initiative—to provide appropriate tools and education on how to get the most out of them—and the response from our customers has been extremely positive. Clearly, the debate will continue. Stay tuned.

As Monday’s tragic events began to unfold at Virginia Tech, students and staff scrambled for cell phones and computers struggling to gain more information and to share their experiences with the rest of the world. The TV coverage of the shootings on the VT campus included–almost immediately–pictures and video captured by students on their cell phones. The cell phone video that aired in an almost constant loop on news networks has become a new symbol of the citizen journalism movement, a trend in media that relies more heavily upon the public to capture breaking news as it happens. Students weren’t just using the camera capabilities of their phones to spread the news; text messaging also played a large role in the unfolding events. As rumors about the shootings circulated, students warned friends to stay off campus and to check their e-mail while others texted friends to let them know they were safe.

One student interviewed late Monday told about her locked-down media writing class writing news stories about the shooting and uploading them to the internet while chaos ensued around them. As the media descended upon Blacksburg, the web site of the Collegiate Times, the student newspaper, was inundated to the point of collapse by people seeking more information. After the site crashed, Times reporters started a blog to keep the information flowing. Blogs on LiveJournal, Vox, and MTV.com captured the unfettered voices of students searching for answers in the wake of the shooting.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Education released a study that found K-12 student test scores on state math and reading tests were not significantly impacted when students used, for one-year, various educational software products. It received major media attention, including a front page article in The Washington Post, pieces on NBC’s The Today Show and ABC’s Good Morning America, and now several op-ed pieces. The most recent op-ed was penned for Business Week by U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), who declared: “This study attempts to show the ineffectiveness of educational technology. Instead it simply reveals the Bush Administration's tunnel vision on the uses and value of it. The benefits education technology offers students go beyond merely passing core-curricular tests. With it, students are gaining the technology skills and knowledge they will need to compete in the 21st-century economy. While ensuring that our students are proficient in reading, math, and science is critical to their academic and employment futures, their ability to use technology tools, mine the resources of the Internet, and collaborate virtually with peers around the world are skills that high-paying employers seek as well.”

This study, if allowed to stand unchallenged, has major implications for not just the educational software industry but also for all involved in education generally. If educational software is dismissed as not helping students achieve, other conversations about the importance of computers and Internet access in classrooms are bound to follow.

A Convergence Consulting analyst has gotten press recently speculating that cable companies will be forced to eventually disable digital video recorders’ fast-forward capability. Brahm Eiley of Toronto-based Convergence has issued two recent reports predicting such a fate for the FF button, and, ultimately, a bleak future for the DVR. Eiley’s conclusion is that DVR-enabled fast forwarding is killing the advertising model and that, to protect the $71 billion television advertising revenue stream, service providers will have to prevent customers from speeding through commercials.

At Cox, we certainly have no plans to stop customers from fast forwarding through DVR-ed content, a favored feature of these amazing devices. Indeed, we shudder to imagine the likely consumer outcry. With DVRs, it’s unrealistic to think we can or should eliminate such a valued feature as FF now, after paying customers have embraced it and will likely protect it vociferously. It simply wouldn’t be prudent for us to take away this feature, especially when customers could likely get it from our competitors.

But while we disagree with the conclusion, we admit parts of Eiley’s argument are sound.

An intriguing sign of the times: Discovery is expected to announce today that it’s rebranding Discovery Home as an eco-friendly channel all about environmental consciousness. According to Broadcasting & Cable, the move is part of Discovery’s PlanetGreen initiative, which is about “celebrating, preserving and protecting the planet” (in the words of Discovery CEO David Zaslav). In addition to the network rebrand, coming in 2008, the initiative will include green-focused Web content and sites, as well as environmental programming on Discovery Communications’ other networks. Somewhere, Al Gore is smiling.

Baseball fans can rest easy now. As can cable operators who want to keep those fans happy. The intense negotiations between Cable and Major League Baseball have ended favorably. Cable will retain rights to the Extra Innings package of out-of-market games. Reportedly, Cable agreed to digital carriage of The Baseball Channel, coming in 2009, and will have a minority ownership in the network, although details haven’t been released yet. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: some more deal details here and here.

Last week, Cox Communications signed a letter of intent to exchange our 25% stake in Discovery Communications for the stock of a company that owns the Travel Channel business, Discovery’s Antenna Audio business and cash. We thought this would be the perfect time to start a new feature on Digital Straight Talk called Five (or so) Tough Questions For…. The first person in the hot seat is Cox’s President, Pat Esser.

1. Pat, Cox is a cable distributor. Why in the world are you interested in owning and operating a cable network like Travel Channel?

Yes, Cox is a cable distributor, and distribution will remain our core business. But I’m always interested in opportunities that can make our business even stronger. We’ve been very pleased with our interest in Discovery, but it's a financial asset that doesn’t hit our bottom line. Converting it into an operating asset like Travel Channel on our balance sheet that will generate revenue and cash flow is a good move for Cox. But beyond that, Travel Channel is a phenomenal brand with powerful content that I’m confident can be leveraged in multiple ways across the businesses and services of Cox Communications and our parent company, Cox Enterprises. That would include our wireless service, as well as newspapers and broadcast stations. There seem to be unlimited opportunities to make the most of Travel’s amazing content. I’m extremely impressed by Pat Younge (general manager of Travel Channel) and his team. My plan is to provide them all of the support they need from me and my team to continuing growing the Travel Channel brand, and to let them do their jobs.

Major League Baseball’s March 31 deadline for negotiations on Extra Innings carriage was extended and negotiations are reportedly continuing today. Stay tuned. In Saturday’s New York Times, writer Joe Nocera marveled that the battle had attracted Senator John Kerry and led to last week’s Senate hearing. While not particularly favorable to MLB or to Cable, the article nonetheless captures many of the underlying issues, including the ever-rising cost of sports TV rights.

So let’s think about what baseball has done here. In the interest of seeing to it that its baseball channel gets a running start on DirecTV, it has infuriated the cable industry, which is now unlikely to ever give it the time of day. It has turned down the opportunity to be guaranteed an astounding 30 million subscribers on Day 1 because it wants to squeeze the cable industry for more. “They allowed the cable industry, which is probably the most reviled industry this side of used car dealers, to become the victims in this thing,” said Marc Ganis, president of the Chicago-based SportsCorp. “You have to really screw up to make cable look good.” Plus, it has alienated 200,000 of its most passionate customers — the ones willing to pay $165 a year to see baseball games every night — taking away from them a fruit they had already tasted. Plus, it has forced those same fans to go to the baseball Web site to see those games — which, however good the site is, still entails scrunching over a screen and looking at a picture that doesn’t compare to say, a flat-screen plasma TV. Plus, it has reminded the world yet again how much sports is just another greedy business — exactly what its customers don’t want to be reminded of. Plus, it’s gotten Congress up in arms.