save access

This is something many of us in the PEG community had been advocating for for years now. It is NOT too late.

Alexandria VA. (July 18, 2008) — The National Association of Telecommunications Officers & Advisors (NATOA) has adopted and released formal Broadband Principles encouraging the immediate development of a National Broadband Strategy. The ten Broadband Principles, created by a task force of NATOA members, outline the critical need for widespread deployment of next-generation broadband networks and necessary steps to achieve this goal:

* NATOA calls for the immediate nationwide deployment of advanced broadband networks.
* True broadband requires high capacity bandwidth in both directions.
* Fiber to the premises isthe preferred broadband option.
* High capacity broadband connectivity must be affordable and widely accessible.
* High capacity broadband requires open access networks.
* Network neutrality is vital to the future of the Internet.
* All networks and users have the right and obligation to non–discriminatory interconnection.
* Local governments must be involved to ensure that local needs and interests are met.
* Local governments must be allowed to build and operate broadband networks.
* A variety of options must be considered to cover deployment costs.

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The T&G ran this story in today's paper titled Cable nudity sparks debate written by Linda Bock TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF.

The show in question has never on played on WCCA TV 13, the local cable public access channel in Worcester.

The T&G did not specify which of the two Worcester cable channels the show was presented on.

No quorum, no meeting last night. The meeting may be rescheduled for July 22, 2008 stay tuned for more fun and frolics. I hope you can join us.

There was no meeting but we did converse while waiting for no show members.

One topic of conversation centered around the City Manager's request of his Cable Advisory committee to recommend how he should allocate the capital grant portion of the cable franchise license to the PEG channels ( 11, 12 and WCCA TV 13).

The conversation got a little testy after WCCA asked why the process of deciding what to recommend to is taking so long, when between the school and city accounts there appears to be a remaining balance exceeding $1.8 million dollars of unencumbered un-used cable franchise money ( as of June 2008). We believe that amount may be more than enough to satisfy the capital needs of all three PEG channels plus finance the attorney for the next renewal .The question seemed to be received with much resentment from the city's director of the government channel, who is also the head of the city's cable division, recording secretary for the cable advisory committee and city administration's liaison to the committee , who also seems to have a lot of clout with the group ( we're not sure how that is not a conflict of interest, but we already fought and lost that one ). The meeting quickly ended, but not before the Committee Chair said he would look into the Government and WPS channel account through the city auditor's department. The representatives from the WPS did not seem to know about the over $ 600,000 balance they had, which I found interesting.

Remember though, this wasn't an official meeting, there was no quorum.

For the last couple of months while we attended the one other cable advisory meeting held, we are told that the capital grant has to be split between the three PEG channels, and we were left with the impression that it was unlikely WCCA's would receive the full amount of capital it needs to meet current equipment needs. In addition we were led to understand that the city may take funds, of the top, to pay for an attorney for the next renewal. Last night,the government channel, the school channel, and WCCA TV13, all informed the committee members in attendance of what each respective channel's equipment capital needs were. WCCA needs to have nearly every single piece of equipment replaced with digital technology. All three PEG channels, combined, need about a bit less than about $ 700,000 Capital funds for the next five years. Not really far from the level capital funds received in 1997.

We hope to avoid any injustice in the process. In the recent past, WCCA has contributed surveys, comprehensive assessments, focus group results, a survey produced by Nancy Richard a member of the Alliance for Community Media, which indicated best practices, franchise rev's, PEG staff assignments, throughout the nation , with intention to help the city's cable and telecommunication strategy. We also pointed to the folks who pioneered this industry and set the standard, to the best of public access centers, and municipal franchise best practices, including third party consulting reports and all the rest of it. More importantly hundreds of people wrote, sent letters, editorials, petitioned, or came to public hearings in support of WCCA, but none of it appears to be enough as far as we can tell ( contrary to the purpose of an ascertainment process). We couldn't find much of it included in the Cable Advisory ascertainment report by the way either.

This however, still raises concerns. TV is the most important medium on the face of the earth.For the past 22 years WCCA, it's staff and volunteers, has and continues to be dedicated to serving the people of this city, as we provide a cutting edge technological resource to empower citizens, so everyone can share in the free flow of information at level unmatched on TV or anywhere else. Public Access is and should be one of the center pieces of municipal telecommunication and cable strategic plans.

When I hear stories of how some cities go out of their way to encourage and support their public access centers, to ensure and be inclusive of Public Access, accepting and fighting to secure the added value and vital role Public Access plays in their community, how do you think it makes us feel in the midst of our experience of Worcester's cable franchise process?

Look through this website, anything you need to know about public access can be found here or through various links throughout it's content.This is not reinventing the wheel.

The city council passed a motion asking the city manager to sign a contract with WCCA by the end of June. Perhaps by the next August Council meeting we have more news to share.

Please attend to support WCCA TV.
WCCA still does not have a long term agreement with the city.
Our operations and equipment to facilitate community media television is at risk.

The city council passed a motion about a month ago asking the CIty Manager to settle an agreement in support of WCCA, to ensure WCCA's capacity to meet community media needs in the future, by the end of June. No word on that status of that motion.

The City Manager has asked his Cable Advisory to make recommendations concerning the allocation of PEG Capital Grant and franchise funds. The city has conducted an ascertainment process that began in 2004, and today , over a year and seven months later, WCCA still does not have a contract.

The recent cable renewal secured 5% to support the EPG channels in addition to a $500,000 capital grant. The City Manager is deciding on how to divy the money up between the three channels. WCCA present over 120 hours of video programs on its channel weekly compared to about 10 or so on the bother channels. WCCA's equipment serves the entire community including hundreds of non-profits, schools, colleges, seniors, neighborhood groups and is well used 24/7. Government channel serves city hall and Educational channel serves the Worcester Public School. All our equipment pretty much in dire need to be replaced. The community came out overwhelmingly in support of WCCA and asked the city manager to make assurances for the stations continued growth and capacity to meet community needs. Our past equipment capital funds are depleted. Best practices in this industry are well documented as are typical funding formulas. WCCA has conducted a city wide survey and large community focus groups to communicate community media needs relative to how to support the PEG channels in Worcester. We understand that between the Educational and Government Channels (11 and 12) there is over $1.8 million dollars of underutilized cable funds. In consideration to the above it should be a no brain-er on how to allocate the cable PEG funds to best serve the community needs. So why is this all taking so long?

Come on down to the meeting tonight and find out.

link

Cable Franchising Bills No Help To Consumers: Survey
66% Of Respondents Say Cable Rates Are Up Despite Competition
by Linda Haugsted
Multichannel News
07/07/08

State cable franchising bills have not led to lower cable rates, and support for
public access channels has eroded in those states with such schemes, according to a
survey conducted by the Alliance for Community Media and the National Association of
Telecommunications Officers and Advisors.

The survey, which included 140 public access center officials from 18 states where
cable is no longer locally regulated, showed that 66% of the respondents said basic
cable rates have increased in their communities, even after the arrival of
competition.

In testimony in support of many of these bills, supporters asserted that the quick
arrival of competition, enabled by such bills, would lower consumer rates. Only 1%
of survey respondents said rates decreased after the bills were passed.

Competitors have taken advantage of the new regulatory regime: 68% of respondents
said competitors, including AT&T and Verizon, have applied for state franchises.
However, incumbents are taking advantage of the regulatory change, too. Fifty-two
percent of respondents said legacy operators have applied to be regulated by the
state.

The ACM is most interested in the impact to its members, and the rest of the survey
had to do with the current state of financial and other support for local cable
production. Twenty percent of the respondents, from communities in California,
Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and
Wisconsin said their funding had decreased since the passage of state regulatory
bills.

Twenty-six percent of those polled said they've lost free cable service to
libraries, school and other public buildings; and 41% said they've lost or had a
reduction in benefits for the operation of local institutional networks.

The ACM said it would use the survey information to seek legislative or regulatory
action that will preserve localism provided by PEG channels.

~~~

Rob McCausland
Director of Information & Organizing Services
Alliance for Community Media
202-393-2650

Thanks again to the many persons who have written editorials and letters to the city manager in support of WCCA TV.

Lately , many people have come up to me expressing something like "...Congratulations, WCCA is finally all set, you have a new contract..."

No, we do not have a new contract. We have an extension of what we had signed in 1997.

As the Executive Director of WCCA, my years of experience on the job, I know how much many of you sincerely care for the station, and have also dedicate a lot of your lives volunteering here at the station, I have a duty to clarify the situation.

City Manager O'Brien has executed an contract extension with WCCA that will expire in September, 2008, unless we first come to a long term agreement prior to its expiration.

What this means:
First of all, we at WCCA sincerely appreciate that the extension will allow WCCA to continue until September. The extension, however, does not address our dire equipment needs or the support we would need to meet the increase community demands for our services, that would be supported from the capital provisions that were written into Charter's license to support PEG.

In the mean time, the City Manager O'Brien is asking a citizens cable advisory to review WCCA's public access needs. They are reviewing the work that was primarily done during the cable franchise renewal ascertainment process ( from 2004- 2008 ). During that phase of the process, community and city groups called for increased funding and support for WCCA. The City Manager has recently asked the cable advisory to look at best practices, contract length or term, financial accountability and to recommend how to allocate funding and capital to support channels 11, 12 and 13. It seems the new concern is that the city now has a five year, instead of a ten year, commitment, from Charter to support the Worcester's PEG channels. It looks like Charter did well to leverage political support and consumer complaints to get the short term it wanted. I tried to warn the city about the risk associated with a short license term, however, it did little good. In fact, after reviewing the renewed cable franchise license, we are not sure how much, if anything, of the expressed community needs that came out of the recent ascertainment, actually made it to the negotiation table. I say this because it is pretty much the same franchise deal as in 1997 minus five years commitment of cable service for Worcester and PEG channel support, and about half of the senior discount, no PEG Broadband inclusion , no inclusion on the preview guide or channel ID, no additional county wide channel for WCCA, no additional channel set asides specifically of Public Access, for example. None of these benefits are found in the rewed license.

I am certain, it is a matter of generally accepted best practices, and most consultants would agree, that of the 5% Franchise Revenue a city recieves for PEG, the formula to support PEG breaks down as follows: 60% P (WCCA), 20%E (WPS channel), 20%G (Government channel). While channels 11 and12 serve city government and an arm of city government (WPS), WCCA serves the entire city including public initiatives, individuals, private schools, and enterprises and hundreds of non-profits (24/7). To diminish WCCA funding in the smallest amount would be contrary to best practices. All the PEG channels are valuable and deserve support for the important contribution they provide for our city. The opportunity to assure reasonable support may have been lost during ascertainment and proceeding negotiations. Would it be right and just if the needs of channels 11 and 12 were to be met at the expense of WCCA TV 13, after the city had invested 22 years in what has become a thriving model public access center, WCCA TV?

On May 27, the City Council had passed a motion asking the city manager to wrap up a long term contract with WCCA by the end of June.

On May 27 the cable advisory committee also met. Both Channel's 11 and 12 expressed that they would like to take a substantial portion of the funding that was traditionally allocated to WCCA, to apparently, basically, to replicate much of WCCA has been already doing since 1986. Many on WCCA's Board of Directors, and members, friends and I agree, believe that if the City Manager's Cable Advisory Committee recommends such a thing and the City Manager carries it out, that may rightly be perceived as out right thievery.

The real need the City Manager's cable committee should be addressing is what can the city do to make up for what it lost in the negotiations with Charter's cable contract other than to pit PEG against itself or tell us to go beg for it?

We will soon be coming forward with a proposal which may offer a realistic solution, which we hope the City Manager will take into consideration.

We learned that the cable advisory will be meeting on June 16 in room 310 at 5:30PM.

Please keep up your letters, phone calls, and all you are doing to support WCCA TV 13,"The People's Channel". You are WCCA TV.

It is difficult to believe that this legislation is actually happening. We can not be surprised however. Strong Language discretion advised.
More about the bill can be traced to S. 2913: Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008. Look it up on GovTrack(.)us

YouTube link

His second youTube video is more direct, beware parental discretion advised:

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Contact your Congressman and Senator today.