TV Signal Delivery to Cable Operators and DTH Platform Operators

The paper discusses new business models of transmission of television programs in the context of definitions of broadcasting and retransmission. Typically the whole process of supplying content to the end user has two stages: a media service provider supplies a signal assigned to a given TV channel to the cable operators and satellite DTH platform operators (dedicated transmission), and cable operators and satellite DTH platform operators transmit this signal to end users. In each stage the signals are encoded and are not available for the general public without the intervention of cable/platform operators. The services relating to the supply and transmission of the content are operated by different business entities: each earns money separately and each uses the content protected by copyright. We should determine how to define the actions of the entity supplying the signal with the TV program directly to the cable/digital platform operator and the actions of the entity providing the end user with the signal. The author criticizes the approach presented in the Chellomedia and Norma rulings, arguing that they lead to a significant level of legal uncertainty, and poses the basic questions concerning the notion of “public” in copyright.

Television viewing, C-reactive protein, and depressive symptoms in older adults

There is emerging evidence for a link between sedentary behavior and mental health, although the mechanisms remain unknown. We tested if an underlying inflammatory process explains the association between sedentary behavior and depressive symptoms. We conducted a two year follow-up of 4964 (aged 64.5 ± 8.9 years) men and women from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a cohort of community dwelling older adults. Self-reported TV viewing time was assessed at baseline as a marker of leisure time sedentary behavior. The eight-item Centre of Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) scale was administered to measure depressive symptoms at follow-up. At baseline, TV time was associated with C-reactive protein (CRP), adjusted geometric mean CRP values were 2.94 mg/L (<2 h/d TV); 3.04 mg/L (2–4 h/d TV); 3.29 mg/L (4–6 h/d TV); 3.23 mg/L (>6 h/d TV). We observed both a direct association of TV time on CES-D score at follow-up (B = 0.08, 95% CI, 0.05, 0.10) and indirect effects (B = 0.07, 95% CI, 0.05, 0.08). The indirect effects were largely explained through lack of physical activity, smoking, and alcohol, but not by CRP or body mass index.

Saturday Morning Television Advertisements Aired on English and Spanish Language Networks along the Texas-Mexico Border

Objectives: The aim of this content analysis study is to characterize the TV advertisements aired to an at-risk child population along the Texas-Mexico border. Methods: We characterized the early Saturday morning TV advertisements aired by three broadcast network categories (U.S. English language, U.S. Spanish language, and Mexican Spanish language) in Spring 2010. The number, type (food related vs. non-food related), target audience, and persuasion tactics used were recorded. Advertised foods, based on nutrition content, were categorized as meeting or not meeting current dietary guidelines. Results: Most commercials were non-food related (82.7%, 397 of 480). The majority of the prepared foods (e.g., cereals, snacks, and drinks) advertised did not meet the current U.S. Dietary Guidelines. Additionally, nutrition content information was not available for many of the foods advertised on the Mexican Spanish language broadcast network category. Conclusions: For U.S. children at risk for obesity along the Texas-Mexico border exposure to TV food advertisements may result in the continuation of sedentary behavior as well as an increased consumption of foods of poor nutritional quality. An international regulatory effort to monitor and enforce the reduction of child-oriented food advertising is needed. Editors' Note: This article was submitted in response to the first issue of the Journal of Applied Research on Children: Latino Children.

The New Audiovisual Media Services Directive : Television without Frontiers, Television without Cultural Diversity

After long deliberations, the European Community (EC) has completed the reform of its audiovisual media regulation. The paper examines the main tenets of this reform with particular focus on its implications for the diversity of cultural expressions in the European media landscape. It also takes into account the changed patterns of consumer and business behaviour due to the advances in digital media and their wider spread in society. The paper criticises the somewhat unimaginative approach of the EC to new media and the political (and at times protectionist) considerations behind some of the Directive's provisions.

The Reform of the EC Audiovisual Media Regulation : Television Without Cultural Diversity

In the profoundly changing and dynamic world of contemporary audiovisual media, what has remained surprisingly unaffected is regulation. In the European Union, the new Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS), proposed by the European Commission on December 13, 2005, should allegedly rectify this situation. Amending the existing Television without Frontiers Directive, it should offer a fresh approach and meet the challenge of appropriately regulating media in a complex environment. It is meant to achieve a balance between the free circulation of TV broadcast and new audiovisual media and the preservation of values of cultural identity and diversity, while respecting the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality inherent to the Community. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how the changes envisaged to the EC audiovisual media regime might influence cultural diversity in Europe. It addresses subsequently the question of whether the new AVMS properly safeguards the balance between competition and the public interest in this regard, or whether cultural diversity remains a mere political banner.

Sticking to Syntax: The Reflection of Story Grammar in Children's and Adult's Recall of Radio and Television Shows

Two studies were conducted to determine how well story grammar predicted recall of televised stories. In Experiment 1, preschoolers viewed a non-narrated televised story from "Sesame Street." In Experiment 2, preschoolers and adults were administered a narrative via television or radio. In both studies, subjects' retention reflected recall of nodal information, regardless of medium of input.

Language ideologies: the formation and legitimisation of New Zealand English

New Zealand English first emerged at the beginning of the 19th century as a result of the dialect contact of British (51%), Scottish (27.3%) and Irish (22%) migrants (Hay and Gordon 2008:6). This variety has subsequently developed into an autonomous and legitimised national variety and enjoys a distinct socio-political status, recognition and codification. In fact, a number of dictionaries of New Zealand English have been published1 and the variety is routinely used as the official medium on TV, radio and other media. This however, has not always been the case, as for long only British standard norms were deemed suitable for media broadcasting. While there is some work already on lay commentary about New Zealand English (see for example Gordon 1983, 1994; Hundt 1998), there is much more to be done especially concerning more recent periods of the history of this variety and the ideologies underlying its development and legitimisation. Consequently, the current project aims at investigating the metalinguistic discourses during the period of transition from a British norm to a New Zealand norm in the media context, this will be done by focusing on debates about language in light of the advent of radio and television. The main purpose of this investigation is thus to examine the (language) ideologies that have shaped and underlain these discourses (e.g. discussions about the appropriateness of New Zealand English vis à vis external, British models of language) and their related practices in these media (e.g. broadcasting norms). The sociolinguistic and pragmatic effects of these ideologies will also be taken into account. Furthermore, a comparison will be carried out, at a later stage in the project, between New Zealand English and a more problematic and less legitimised variety: Estuary English. Despite plenty of evidence of media and other public discourses on Estuary English, in fact, there has been very little metalinguistic analysis of this evidence, nor examinations of the underlying ideologies in these discourses. The comparison will seek to discover whether similar themes emerge in the ideologies played out in publish discourses about these varieties, themes which serve to legitimise one variety, whilst denying such legitimacy to the other.

Contact, Mobility and Authenticity: Language Ideologies in Koineisation

New Zealand English first emerged at the beginning of the 19th century as a result of the dialect contact of British (51%), Scottish (27.3%) and Irish (22%) migrants (Hay and Gordon 2008:6). This variety has subsequently developed into an autonomous and legitimised national variety and enjoys a distinct socio-political status, recognition and codification. In fact, a number of dictionaries of New Zealand English have been published1 and the variety is routinely used as the official medium on TV, radio and other media. This however, has not always been the case, as for long only British standard norms were deemed suitable for media broadcasting. While there is some work already on lay commentary about New Zealand English (see for example Gordon 1983, 1994; Hundt 1998), there is much more to be done especially concerning more recent periods of the history of this variety and the ideologies underlying its development and legitimisation. Consequently, the current project aims at investigating the metalinguistic discourses during the period of transition from a British norm to a New Zealand norm in the media context, this will be done by focusing on debates about language in light of the advent of radio and television. The main purpose of this investigation is thus to examine the (language) ideologies that have shaped and underlain these discourses (e.g. discussions about the appropriateness of New Zealand English vis à vis external, British models of language) and their related practices in these media (e.g. broadcasting norms). The sociolinguistic and pragmatic effects of these ideologies will also be taken into account. Furthermore, a comparison will be carried out, at a later stage in the project, between New Zealand English and a more problematic and less legitimised variety: Estuary English. Despite plenty of evidence of media and other public discourses on Estuary English, in fact, there has been very little metalinguistic analysis of this evidence, nor examinations of the underlying ideologies in these discourses. The comparison will seek to discover whether similar themes emerge in the ideologies played out in publish discourses about these varieties, themes which serve to legitimise one variety, whilst denying such legitimacy to the other.

Food advertisements during children's television programming in 2007: Comparison with ads in 1994 and the 2005 dietary recommendations

Childhood overweight and obesity are two major public health problems that are of economic and medical concern in the world today (Lobstein, Baur, & Uauy, 2004). Overweight conditions in childhood are important because they are widely prevalent, serious, and carry lifetime consequences for health and well being (Lobstein et al., 2004). Several studies have shown an association between television viewing and obesity in all age groups (Caroli, Argentieri, Cardone, & Masi, 2004; Harper, 2006; Vandewater & Huang, 2006; Wiecha et al., 2006). One mechanism that potentially links television viewing to childhood obesity is food advertising (Story, 2003). ^ The purpose of this study was to examine the types of foods advertised on children's television programming and to determine if there have been any changes in the number and types of commercials over the last 13 years. In addition, the food content of the advertisements was compared to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines to determine if the foods targeted were consistent with the current recommendations. Finally, each television network was analyzed individually to determine any differences between advertising on cable and regular programming. ^ A descriptive analysis was conducted on the most commonly advertised commercials during children's television programming on Saturday morning from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. A total of 10 major television networks were viewed on three different Saturday mornings during June and July 2007. Commercial advertising accounted for approximately 19% of children's total viewing time. Of the 3,185 commercials, 28.5% were for foods, 67.7% were for non-food items, and 3.8% were PSAs. On average, there were 30 commercial advertisements and PSAs per hour, of which approximately nine were for food. ^ Of the 907 food advertisements, 72.0% were for foods classified in the fats, oils, and sugar group. The next largest group (17.3%) was for restaurant food of which 15.3% were for unhealthy/fast food restaurant fare. The most frequently advertised food product on Saturday morning television was regular cereal, accounting for 43.9% of all food advertisements. ^ Cable and regular programming stations varied slightly in the amount, length, and category of commercials. Cable television had about 50% less commercials and PSAs (1098) than regular programming (2087), but only had approximately 150 minutes less total commercial and PSA time; therefore, cable, in general, had longer commercials than regular programming. Overall, cable programming had more advertisements encouraging increased physical activity and positive nutrition behavior with less commercials focusing on the fats, oils, and sugar groups, compared to regular programming. ^ During the last 13 years, food advertisements have not improved, despite the recent IOM report on marketing foods to children (Institute of Medicine-Committee on Food Marketing and the Diets of Children and Youth, 2005), although the frequency of food advertisements has improved slightly. Children are now viewing an average of one food advertisement every 7 minutes, compared to one food advertisement every 5 minutes in 1994 (Kotz & Story, 1994). Therefore, manufacturers are putting a greater emphasis on advertising other products to children. Despite the recent attention to the issue of marketing unhealthy foods to children through television advertisements, not much progress has been noted since 1994. Further advocacy and regulatory issues concerning the content of advertisements during Saturday morning TV need to be explored. ^

Parents' impressions of inappropriate television content for Hispanic preschool children

Rates of childhood obesity have increased three-fold in the last 20 years, and experts estimate that well over half of adolescents with a Body Mass Index at or above the 95th percentile become obese adults. These trends are even more pronounced in ethnic minority and lower income populations that are disproportionately impacted by obesity and its complications. It would be appropriate, then, to focus obesity interventions on Hispanic children. Television viewing, especially, has been shown to contribute to obesity by increasing caloric intake and decreasing physical activity. Parent involvement has proven to be a critical component in changing children’s health behaviors. In order to explore parents’ motivations for limiting their children’s television viewing, I qualitatively analyzed data from twenty-five interviews with Houston area Head Start parents. Using Grounded Theory, four main categories of concern emerged from the audio-recorded conversations: developmentally inappropriate content, the influence of television, poor health behaviors/outcomes, and general disapproval with television. Developmentally inappropriate content was the most frequently mentioned category with 119 mentions. This included violence, the most common sub-theme. In all, parents were more concerned with television content that produced proximate consequences such as modeling violent behavior or inappropriate language. Content that encouraged behaviors that led to obesity or other delayed consequences were of less concern to the parents. This suggests that future interventions aimed at encouraging Hispanic parents to reduce their children’s television viewing should draw motivation from parents’ concerns about developmentally inappropriate content, rather than focusing on deleterious health outcomes such as obesity. ^

If we call them, will they change? Feasibility of a telephone adaptation of motivational interviewing aimed at parents to reduce television time among 2nd and 4th grade children

Television viewing is a sedentary behavior that is modifiable. Reducing media-related behaviors via parent-focused interventions may hold promise for decreasing childhood obesity. This feasibility study examines a novel parent-centered brief telephone-delivered Motivational Enhancement Interview (MEI) to encourage parents of 2nd and 4th graders to set a rules limiting TV time or remove the TV from the child's bedroom. This quasi-experimental sub-study was part of the larger CATCH: En Vivo pilot study conducted in a Hispanic population in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. Parents in the MEI condition were contacted via telephone and encouraged to meet the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended 2 hours per day or less of TV. Unconditional logistic regression was used to analyze the data. At post-test, 85% of parents of 4th graders in the MEI group (compared to 71% at pre-test) reported having a rule limiting TV time. The adjusted odds ratio for the MEI group compared to the control group was 3.88, 95% CI (0.72-20.99). At pre-test, 63.16% of 2nd graders had a television in their bedrooms. The 2nd grade MEI intervention reduced that number to 41.03% (OR=0.25, 95%CI (0.08-0.82)). This first look at using MEI to target parents of children to modify TV behavior presents evidence on a promising strategy for modifying children's home media environment and warrants further investigation. ^

Integración Wi-Fi en un proyecto ICT

La instalación de Infraestructuras Comunes de Telecomunicación (IICCTT) en el interior de las edificaciones para el acceso a los servicios de telecomunicación facilitó la incorporación a las viviendas de las nuevas tecnologías de forma económica y transparente para los usuarios. Actualmente, todos los edificios de nueva construcción deben presentar un proyecto ICT firmado por un Ingeniero Técnico de Telecomunicación de la especialidad correspondiente o un Ingeniero de Telecomunicación. La legislación que las regula afecta a todo tipo de viviendas con independencia del poder adquisitivo del comprador, y contribuye de manera decisiva a que disminuyan a corto y medio plazo las desigualdades sociales en lo relativo al acceso a servicios de telecomunicación tales como telefonía, Internet, telecomunicación por cable, radiodifusión sonora y televisión analógica, digital, terrenal o por satélite, etc.. Desde 1997, el Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación junto con otras organizaciones públicas y privadas ha participado en la elaboración de la normativa aplicable a las Infraestructuras Comunes de Telecomunicación, dando lugar al actual decreto, el Real Decreto 346/2011, de 11 de Marzo. El propósito general de este proyecto es diseñar una red Wi-Fi a partir de las canalizaciones e instalaciones del proyecto ICT de un conjunto de viviendas unifamiliares, para que todas ellas dispongan de conexión a internet de forma inalámbrica. Para llevar a cabo este diseño, se ha realizado un estudio de las características del estándar IEEE 802.11, conocido como Wi-Fi, analizando las posibilidades de comunicación inalámbrica que ofrece, así como las limitaciones que presenta en la actualidad. Se ha analizado el proyecto ICT del conjunto de viviendas, estudiando la viabilidad de utilizar sus instalaciones para implementar la red Wi-Fi, añadiendo tanto las canalizaciones como los dispositivos comerciales necesarios para llevar a cabo dicha implementación. Además, se ha estudiado la posibilidad de integrar la red Wi-Fi utilizando el cableado de televisión de la propia ICT. Por último, se ha estudiado la gran importancia que al Hogar Digital se da en el Real Decreto 346/2011, de 11 de marzo, por el que se aprueba el Reglamento regulador de las Infraestructuras Comunes de Telecomunicaciones para el acceso a los servicios de telecomunicación en el interior de las edificaciones, presentando los aspectos fundamentales que se persiguen con la domotización de la vivienda como mejora de vida de sus habitantes. Abstract The installation of Telecommunications Common Infrastructures (TCIs, in Spanish Infraestructuras Comunes de Telecomunicación –IICCTT-) in the buildings, in order to gain access to telecommunications services, facilitated the incorporation into the houses of new technologies in an economical and transparent way for users. Nowadays, every new construction building must have a TCI project signed by a Telecommunications Engineer or a Technical Telecommunications Engineer with the appropriate specialization. The legislation that regulates TCIs affects every kind of houses, independently of the buyer´s purchasing power, and contributes decisively to decrease in short and medium terms the social inequalities concerning the access to the telecommunication services, such as telephony, Internet, wired telecommunications, audible broadcasting and digital, analogical, land, satellite television, etc.. Since 1997, the Telecommunications Engineer Official College, together with other public and private organizations, has been elaborating the regulations for the TCIs, giving rise to the current decree, the Royal Decree 346/2011, of 11th of March. The general purpose of this project is to design a Wi-Fi network based on the canalizations and installations of the TCI project of a housing development, in such a way that every house is provided with a wireless connection to the Internet. In order to carry out this design, the characteristics of the standard IEEE 802.11, known as Wi-Fi, have been studied, analyzing the wireless-communication possibilities that it offers, as well as the constraints that it presents currently. The TCI project has been analyzed, studying the feasibility of using its installations to implement the Wi-Fi network, adding the canalizations and commercial devices required to execute the aforementioned implementation. Besides, the possibility of integrating the Wi-Fi network using the television wires of the TCI project has been investigated. Finally, it has been studied the great importance that has been given to Digital Home in the Royal Decree 346/2011, of 11th of March, that approves the regulatory Regulations of Telecommunications Common Infrastructures for the access to telecommunications services inside the buildings, presenting the essential aspects that are pursued with the house domotization as a way to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants.

Gestión de pruebas para equipos de vídeo

Desde hace ya muchos años, uno de los servicios de telecomunicaciones más demandado por los españoles ha sido la televisión de pago, complementando y ampliando la oferta de contenidos audiovisuales que habitualmente son ofrecidos de manera gratuita por la televisión analógica y recientemente por la televisión digital terrestre o TDT. Estos servicios de video, han sido tradicionalmente ofrecidos por operadores satélites, operadores de cable u otros operadores de telecomunicaciones con los que a través de una conexión de datos (ADSL, VDSL o fibra óptica), ofrecían sus contenidos a través de IP. La propia evolución y mejora de la tecnología utilizada para la emisión de contenidos sobre IP, ha permitido que a día de hoy, la televisión se conciba como un servicio Over The Top (OTT) ajeno al medio de transmisión, permitiendo a cualquier agente, distribuir sus contenidos audiovisuales de manera sencilla y a todos sus clientes en todas las partes del mundo; siendo solamente necesario disponer de una conexión a internet. De esta manera, el proyecto desarrollado va a girar en torno a la herramienta StormTest de la empresa S3Group, comprada por CENTUM Solutions (empresa especializada en ofrecer servicio de ingeniería para sistema de comunicaciones, control e inteligencia de señal) con el objetivo de satisfacer las necesidades de sus clientes y con la que en definitiva se ha contado para la realización de este proyecto. El principal objetivo de este proyecto es la definición e implementación de un banco de pruebas que permita optimizar los procesos de validación técnica, mejorando los tiempos de ejecución y concentrando la actividad de los ingenieros en tareas de mayor valor. Para la realización de este proyecto, se han fijado diversos objetivos necesarios para el desarrollo de este tipo de actividades. Los principales son los siguientes:  Análisis de la problemática actual: donde en los procesos de aceptación técnica se dedica muchas horas de trabajo para la realización de pruebas repetitivas y de poco valor las cuales se pueden automatizar por herramientas existentes en el mercado.  Búsqueda y selección de una herramienta que satisfaga las necesidades de pruebas.  Instalación en los laboratorios.  Configuración y adaptación de la herramienta a las necesidades y proyectos específicos. Con todo ello, este proyecto cubrirá los siguientes logros:  Reducir los tiempos de ejecución de las campañas de pruebas, gracias a la automatización de gran parte ellas.  Realizar medidas de calidad subjetiva y objetiva complejas, imposibles de ejecutar a través de las personas. Mejorar y automatizar los sistemas de reporte de resultados. Abstract: Many years ago, one of the telecommunications services most demanded in Spain has been pay television, complementing and extending the offer of audiovisual content which are usually offered for free by analog tv and recently by digital terrestrial televisión or TDT. These video services, have been traditionally offered by satellite operators, cable operators or other telecommunications operators that through a data connection (ADSL,VDSL or fiber optic), offered its content over IP. The evolution and improvement of the technology used for broadcasting over IP, has allowed that to date, television is conceived as a service Over The Top (OTT), not dependent on the transmission medium, allowing any agent to distribute audiovisual content in a very simple way and to all its customers in all parts of the world; being only necessary to have an decent internet connection. In this way, the project will have relation with S3Group’s StormTest tool, bought by CENTUM Solutions (company specialized in engineering services for communications, control and signal intelligence system) with the aim of satisfying the needs of its customers and which ultimately has counted for the realization of this project. The main objective of this project is the definition and implementation of a test bench that allows to optimize the processes of technical validation, improving execution times and concentrating the activities of engineers on higher value tasks. For the realization of this project, it has been defined several objectives necessary for the development of this type of activity. The most important tones are listed below:  Analysis of the current situation: where in technical acceptance processes it is dedicated many hours of work for the completion of repetitive testing and without value which can be automated by tools available on the market  Search and selection of a tool that meets the needs of testing.  Installation on the laboratories.  Configuration and customization of the tool to specific projects. With all this, this project will cover the following achievements: Reduce the execution time of the testing campaigns, thanks to the automation of many of them.  Measurements of subjective and objective quality tests, impossible to run with engineers (due to subjective perception). Improve and automate reporting of results systems