PEG

Last week we placed a call into city hall asking what the impact would be and if the city has a plan to address Charter's bankruptcy filing. We did get a response from Julie Jacobson, assistant city manager. According to Julie Jacobson we were told : “This particular bankruptcy by Charter is different than a typical Chapter 11, because it is what they call a 'pre arranged' filing, meaning that, the major creditors and Charter got together and worked out a restructuring of the company,which is what Chapter 11 does, but they did it voluntarily, as opposed to being forced to do it. So, the filing, itself, has no immediate impact on the city & Charter franchise agreement and therefore the PEG entities and the payments to PEG entities is secure under the Chapter 11. This may actually be a good thing, in the sense that if Charter is doing this reorganization to shift their debt payments, then they may actually be healthier financially after this. As long as there are in Chapter 11 it has no impact on the [franchise] agreement itself. Of course, if they [Charter] were to cease operations, which would be a totally different thing, that would be a different story all together. However, as it stands now, the franchise payments are going to continue and they honor all their existing contracts.” We thank Julie for her response.

Sept.2008 ACM:
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government September 17th Hearing on PEG Access TV,
in YouTube Clips

Public Access channels (P.E.G) including non-profit channels such as public access community media centers like WCCA TV 13, are facing many possible legislative threats. These threats apparently coming from the lobbying efforts of the phone companies and even cable companies influence on congress and the FCC.

It seems the cash cow companies like the AT&T's, Verizon's, etc. would rather discourage Public Access by trivializing and marginalizing access to public access channels. Making these channels tough to find or download. They most likely would rather replace local channels with more profitable home shopping and who knows what else, to draw even more profits.

We must also pay attention to the State subsidizing broadband without heavier regulation and Public Access inclusion, without stronger regulations and assurances for PEG and the inclusion of PEG, state subsidized broadband may simply do more to help these mega companies increase billion dollar profits while tax payers foot the bill and while these companies give the people less back in exchange for rights of way.

Municipalities who recognize the civic, social, community, economic, and cultural value benefits of Public Access Television, are fighting hard to maintain laws that protect, support, and fund Public Access Media centers. With the help of our communities and neighbors, WCCA TV has been a strong local advocate but what is really needed is for our municipal, state and federal leaders to stand up for all of us and show meaningful vigor in the fight to ensure stations such as WCCA TV 13 can continue to grow, expand to meet community needs. This will require more than just level funding.

Worcester has an award winning, cutting edge, vital and proactive public access center. It is time for our city council, and city administration to step up to the plate and hit a home run for Public Access. Let the people know their voices, their channel, their community media center counts. This is something that is way past due and requires urgent attention.

August 19th, 7:30 AM in 310, City Hall, Worcester MA

Cable Advisory members met at City Hall, at 7:30 AM, to approve a final draft of their recommendations regarding the city’s PEG channels. WCCA was present. WCCA TV 13 is the Public Access channel (P of the PEG Channels).

The Cable Advisory members voted to approve a document that was not available at the meeting. I was told the document was emailed to the cable advisory members in advance.

Earlier, the City’s government channel /cable division director had informed me that she emailed a draft to the Chair of the committee last week. WCCA had requested a copy of the draft in advance but it was not made available.

There was a motion to vote on the document that was emailed to the committee. The Chair asked if there should be any corrections. There was no further discussion and the vote was to approve the document. The committee members were asked to sign another document, which appeared to be some sort of confirmation pertaining to the vote. There then was a motion to adjourn.

I asked, for the record, for a copy of the final document that was approved and the Chair said he would email a copy to me.

Whereas WCCA and the E&G channels rest in the balance of the Cable Advisory Committees recommendations, and whereas I could possibly offer important insight, I also asked, for the record, why I was not given the opportunity to review in advance the document before the committee voted on it. WCCA TV was told the City Solicitor’s office instructed the Chair not to send out copies until the final version was out.

WCCA TV will update you, upon receiving a final version of the document.

City Manager's Cable Advisory Committee (CAC) had a quorum last night. They met in room 310 at City Hall. The following is our experience. We ( WCCA TV ) were not first to arrive. Three committee members were there with the representative of the the city govt channel 12, who is also representing the city manager, along with a member representing the WPS Educational channel 11 . As soon as the fourth CAC member arrived the meeting was called into order. The chair passed out an agenda to all who asked for one. A reporter form the T&G also was present.
Their task seemed to be to continue old business, which included to follow up on an assignment they had given themselves two weeks ago, which was to contact PEG access centers which they had on a pre-assembled list, to poll them concerning: The number of distinct PEG entities, How many PEG channels, What percentage of gross revs they receive, How are the revs divided to each entity, Other sources for PEG funds, What level of Capital funds they received and how it is divided up. They also sought answers to how each respondent would define "local programming", if they establish goals, if there are any limitations or restrictions to use of funds, who the LO is and how many subscribers they have.

In other words all the questions that we addressed and we believe CAC also addressed, or should have been addressed during the ascertainment / community assessment period that took place between 2004 and 2007. The franchise expired in Jan. 2007 and the city signed a renewed cable franchise, with a much shorter term, in Spring of 2008. WCCA's Public Access agreement, normally co-terminus with the cable franchise, is yet to be negotiated.

Yes, it did get a little testy.

Read More "Good Faith" fun and frolics

WCCA has been very vocal about the damages of such legislation. It is amazing how deaf to reason the political world can be. Go to the sunlight foundation and check out who is being paid off by cable and phone lobbyist. Then it may become apparent why legislation and other government actions diminish all that has been accomplished in PUBLIC ACCESS in past years through local cable franchises.
Feel free to share your findings here at WCCA's website.
READ MORE:

http://www.natoa.org/2008/03/natoa-survey-impact-of-state-v.html

NATOA Survey: Impact of State Video Services Legislation
March 5, 2008 11:10 AM
Impact of State Video Services Legislation
Early Results Do Not Evidence Sufficient Competitive Benefits

Alexandria , VA – The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) today released results of a preliminary survey it conducted among its members to obtain a snapshot of the impact state video services legislation has had to date on communities and subscribers. While state video franchising is still a relatively new concept, the survey posed questions regarding its effects on competition, rates and services, PEG (Public, Educational and Governmental) access, and consumer complaints. Responses came from 14 of the states which have adopted state video legislation. A total of 139 Local Franchising Authorities (LFAs), representing 10 million cable subscribers (15% of cable subscribers nationwide), participated in the survey.

The results of the survey indicate that incumbent cable providers are taking advantage of the change in law, with one third of respondents indicating that the incumbent had abandoned its local franchise for one issued by the state. New entrants are seeking only state franchises. In franchise areas affected by state legislation, 27% of participants report one new entrant, and 6% report more than one new entrant in operation. Thirty-five percent (35%) of LFAs report the new entrant has not built anything; 48% report the new entrant has built out to part of the community; while only 18% report that the new entrant is in the process of or has built out to the entire community.

As a result of these changes, NATOA was disappointed to learn that under state legislation thus far:

* Rates have not decreased according to 98% of those surveyed.

* Incumbent basic rates have increased $1.12 for analog and $1.51 for digital

* Most new entrants do not market a Basic Service Tier nor report rates, which makes consumer comparison shopping difficult at best.

* Consumer complaints remain high with 74% of respondents reporting the same level of complaints, except as they relate to the availability of choice of provider

* The majority of LFAs reported that on incumbent systems, the number of PEG (Public, Educational and Governmental) access channels has remained constant (97%) and that the technical quality has remained the consistent (89%). PEG channel positions on new entrant systems were reported as different from the incumbents by 39% with worse or poor technical quality reported by 36% on new entrant systems. PEG funding was the same for 44% of the LFAs, whereas funding increased for 12% and actually decreased for 22% of respondents.

* Overall, 82% of LFAs do not believe that state video legislation is having a positive impact on their community; 90% believe that PEG programming is not being treated in an equitable manner by new entrants; and 97% believe that customer service has not improved under state supervision.

“We were anxious to get this first snap shot and to set the bar against which future data can be collected and judged,” said NATOA Executive Director Libby Beaty. “Clearly, this legislation is very new in many places, and only time will tell whether, once implementation is complete, it will prove to have benefited consumers more than the corporations that sought the legislative changes. We are hopeful that it is the consumer who will win, but clearly it’s too soon to see those benefits yet. State legislation just out of the gate is not resulting in price reduction, the primary reason used to justify state over local regulation.”

Read the Executive Summary of the Survey Here.
Contact: Libby Beaty, Executive Director, 703-519-8035

[Late update: Here's the contract (PDF).]

The city has announced it is about to sign a new agreement with Charter Communications.

I'm grateful that there has been some consideration to support the Public (WCCA TV 13), Education, and Government channels. Without having seen the actual agreement, there's not much I can comment about at this point. (The negotiation process has been almost entirely opaque to the public, and to those of us at this station.)

After reading this morning's T&G article by Nick Kotsopoulos, it's not clear if the city's PEG channels will be able to expand, or even maintain their current services.

At this moment we can only have faith the city will do or has done the best it can do to meet the expressed needs of the community as presented during the ascertainment process. It may be too early to tell but I hope not too late.

I welcome your comments and questions here on this web site.

Mauro DePasquale, Executive Director, WCCA TV 13, "The People's Channel"