Cable Act

I read this in the Telegram the other day Questions are raised about cable TV contract" and I couldn't resist at least writting a little comment to pass on to our public access friends in Dudley, MA

I often wonder it cable executives believe that if they put on a three hundred dollar ($300) suit and others will believe what ever they say. ( apparantly sometimes they do, I guess but that's another blog story for another time )

According to the T&G article, during a public cable licensing renewal hearing , Dudley selectmen raised questions concerning the capital grant provisions to fund the PEG channels. It appears Selectman Steven P Sullivan was insightful to point out something that usually gets overlooked during the public hearing process. Mr Sullivan was keenly focused on the capital grant portion of the which, like the rest of the franchise provisions is a cost of doing business, cable companies pay in exchange for rights of way.

Mark A. Hart of the FLORIDA MEDIA COALITION distributed this which I received through the ACM list serve. Note it is time to stop the forgetting about why Public Access was started in the first place. It is time to stop forgetting that it was an act of congress that created the legislative ground work making stations such as WCCA TV possible, It is time to stop forgetting that people need access in exchange for rights of way:

" PEGS PRAISE CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON STATE CABLE TV FRANCHISES "

Tampa, Fla. – (Sept. 18, 2008) – The Florida Public, Educational,
and Government (PEG) access channel community reacted strongly and favorably
Thursday to a Sept. 17 Congressional hearing on the impact of state cable TV
franchise laws.

"Congress needs to recognize that a rapid erosion of public benefits
is underway," said Louise Thompson, executive director of the Tampa Bay
Community Network, citing efforts by cable operators to make PEGs harder to find
and more difficult to use.

"That defies Congressional goals to preserve localism and diversity in cable
franchising and ignores state laws requiring equivalent treatment of public
channels," Thompson said.

Thompson was among members of the Florida Association of Telecommunications
Officers & Advisors who before the hearing briefed an aide to U.S. Rep. Debbie
Wasserman Schultz (D-Pembroke Pines) about the impacts on PEGs of the Florida
Consumer Choice Act of 2007.

Wasserman Shultz serves on the House Financial Services and
General Government Subcommittee, which conducted the hearing.

“Public, Educational and Government (PEG) access channels provide important and
valuable services to citizens in communities all across America,’ Wasserman
Shultz said. “We must ensure that while technology may improve with time, PEG
channels remain accessible and readily available to those of us with digital and
analog cable signals.”

Participating in the briefing were FLATOA President David Frye of
West Palm Beach, Vice President Scott Robin of Aventura, and Secretary Jim
Clark, also of West Palm Beach. FLATOA represents PEG channels in Wasserman
Schultz’s district.

“The subcommittee heard a laundry list of harms done to PEGs. Members seemed to
be receptive to the information provided,” said Frye, who monitored the
proceedings over the Web. “I think it was a homerun for access.”

Nineteen states, including Florida, have passed video franchise laws. The
Florida Media Coalition, a pro-media advocacy group based in Tampa, is seeking
amendments to the law to afford better protections for PEGs. AT&T operates in
various regions of Florida.
“The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the state
legislatures forgot that the communities in which they reside watch PEG
channels,” Hart said. “They forgot that more than one member of Congress uses
PEG channels to communicate with their constituents. They also forgot that it
was Congress itself that brought PEG channels into existence through the U.S.
Cable Act.”

The coalition to seeking to delete programming requirements from the law that
are burdensome to government and educational access, as well as a provision that
would allow elimination of public access by a majority vote of all subscribers
in a given service area.

In addition, the coalition is seeking to add a provision that PEGs must be
located adjacent to other basic service channels. The cities of Tampa and St.
Petersburg have filed a lawsuit against Bright House for moving its government
access channel to triple digit channels.

During Wednesday’s hearing, members of the subcommittee expressed their
concerns over cable operators moving PEG channels to higher numbered digital
tiers, which made them harder to find and required subscribers to pay for a
cable box to be able to view.

They also expressed concern with the practice by AT&T of placing PEG access
programming on a single channel where subscribers scroll through a menu options
to locate a PEG channel.

Monica Shah Desai, the Chief of the Media Bureau of the FCC, testified at the
hearing.

"We believe that placing PEG channels on any tier other than the basic service
tier may be a violation of the statute, which requires that PEG access
programming be placed on the basic service tier. Subjecting consumers to
additional burdens to watch their PEG channels defeats the purpose of the basic
service tier,” Desai said.

“We believe it is important to ensure that consumers are able to get access
equally to all channels belonging on the basic service tier, and that this
should be the case regardless of what type of system the channels are being
carried on," she testified.

Members of the subcommittee expressed their frustration that the FCC
has not yet acted to deal with the actions by some cable operators and by AT&T
in their substandard treatment of PEG channels.

In answers to questions from the subcommittee Ms. Desai said that the FCC needed
to receive a specific and formal complaint before it could take action, but
subcommittee members reminded her of that FCC oversight and enforcement
responsibility which does not require the filing of formal complaints.

The hearing concluded with subcommittee chairman Jose Serrano (D-NY)
and subcommittee member Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) stating that "the subcommittee will
put the subject on the table with the FCC" by writing to the FCC and requesting
action.

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