Save Access

We have slightly more than a day to save the Public Interest when it comes to Substitute Bill SB 117.

from: As Ohio Goes

Ohio Senate Bill SB 117
CZawadzki's http://www.asohiogoes.com

The Ohio House of Representatives’ public utilities committee will be holding another hearing on Senate Bill SB 117 on Wednesday, June 6,at
11a.m.

Ohio Senate Bill SB 117 threatens to undermine public, educational and government access television (PEG) throughout the state of Ohio. Established in the early years of cable television, public access provides the opportunity for average citizens to produce and broadcast their own TV shows, an extension of First Amendment free-speech rights. Cable access channels are a vital part of our democracy, allowing citizens to communicate directly with one another without mediation by the dominant corporate media. AT&T’s bill is threatening this essential part of our democracy.

from: Cincinnati Post

Critics oppose cable TV bill
Associated Press

COLUMBUS - A bill that would rewrite the rules governing cable television franchises in Ohio and help telecommunications giant AT&T Inc. enter the video market threatens to wipe out local public access channels, critics say.

From: The Patriot Ledger

Verizon to urge faster franchise process: Hearing tomorrow; spokesman says 'system is broken'

By JON CHESTO
The Patriot Ledger

During a question-and-answer session at an industry conference, Verizon's chief financial officer said the telecom giant is generally satisfied with the pace of its expansion of its new TV service.

Chief Financial Officer Doreen Toben responded to a question about Verizon's cable TV franchising efforts by playing up the successes the company has had so far in states that require town-by-town negotiations for cable franchises such as Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania.

from: Media Nation

The threat to local access

When the euphemisms start piling up, the best thing to do is to take a closer look. The Legislature's Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy will hold a public hearing tomorrow on the Massachusetts Cable Choice and Competition Act. Well, gee, who could be against such a thing? In fact, the bill represents a massive assault on local media by the telecom giant Verizon. It's also part of a nationwide campaign. The Web site SaveAccess.org is tracking the issue here and elsewhere.

The legislation, described in the Globe last Friday by Laura Colarusso and the subject of a Globe op-ed today by Nolan Bowie, would strip cities and towns of their right to regulate the franchising of cable television operations in their communities. Instead, all regulation would be carried out by the state. Such a change could result in less local programming — the government meetings, school plays, church services and community bulletin boards that don't exactly compete with "American Idol," but that form a vital part of the local media scene.

Because government-mandated funding formulas are based on the number of subscribers in a given community, larger cities such as Boston, Cambridge and Somerville have vibrant local public-affairs programming as well. Boston even has a daily newscast and a weekly political talk show, as I described in a story for CommonWealth Magazine earlier this year. State regulation wouldn't necessarily result in the immediate demise of such funding mandates — but it would make getting rid of those mandates a whole lot easier.

So what's going on? Traditional cable providers — now mostly bought up by Comcast — played by the old rules, winning approval on a town-by-town basis. Verizon, which seeks to offer cable television over its phone lines, wants to catch up quickly, which is why Verizon officials are complaining about the lengthy delays sometimes imposed by local officials. Comcast, at least for the moment, seeks to keep the current regulatory regime in place — after all, it already has the licenses it needs, so anything that makes life more difficult for Verizon gives it a competitive advantage.

In fact, there will be more competition and more choice for consumers in communities where Comcast and Verizon go at it head to head. The problem is that transferring the regulatory process from local communities to the state could well result in fewer mandates for cable providers to put money into local programming. It could quickly become a race to the bottom, as Comcast would rightly cry foul if Verizon were allowed to get away with making less of a commitment to localism.

The traditional cable providers are fighting just as hard as Verizon. Recently I noticed a commercial during a Red Sox game from a group called Keep It Local MA. It was a warm, gauzy appeal to keep cable television the way it is today. Its Web site looks like it was designed by Norman Rockwell. But if you do a "whois" on keepitlocalma.com, you'll find that it's registered to something called NECTA.

A little Googling quickly reveals that NECTA is the New England Cable and Telecommuniations Association, "a six state regional trade association representing substantially all private cable telecommunications companies in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont" that "has represented the interests of the cable telecommunications industry before state and federal regulatory agencies, in the Courts, the Legislatures, and before the Congress of the United States."

So yes, all the players are looking out for their best interests. It's just that, in this particular case, the traditional cable industry's interests happen to line up with those of consumers.

The time will come when there will be no logical rationale for regulating television delivery — it will all be Internet-based, and the closed cable systems of today will cease to exist. For now, though, if regulators stop requiring cable companies to pay for local programming, then it will disappear.

The legislation, Senate #1975, is online here. The media-reform organization Free Press offers online resources here. The principal sponsor of the bill is state Sen. Steven Panagiotakos, D-Lowell, whose contact information is online here. The Massachusetts Muncipal Association, which opposes the bill, has a resource guide online here.

Labels: local access

from: The Eagle Tribune

Customers' bills to drop? Cable TV law stirs debate in city

By Jason Tait , Staff Writer
Eagle-Tribune

—
HAVERHILL - One side says your cable television bills could drop. The other says you could lose your community access television station.

Note: We have heard similar reports from other states considering video franchise legislation. It seems the best way to get legislators to change their vote is to misinform them at the last minute. We hope our elected officials will read the fine print of these telco bills before signing off on them.

The day that SB 117 passed in the Senate I was at the statehouse and here are a couple of the things I noticed:

from: Germantown News

Cable bill pulled from consideration
By Terry Britt

If AT&T wants a piece of the Germantown cable provider scene, it's still going to have to go through the city's licensing procedures.

Wednesday, a legislative bill backed by AT&T was withdrawn from consideration by its sponsors, Reps. Steve McDaniel and Charles Curtiss. The bill would have given cable television providers like AT&T the ability to apply for a statewide franchise rather than going through individual municipalities.

from: Boston Globe

Consumer benefit in cable franchising

By Nolan Bowie | June 4, 2007

WHATEVER VOICE towns and cities have in their cable television service will be at stake in a bill before the state Legislature tomorrow.

The Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy will hold a hearing on a bill favored by Verizon Communications Inc. The so-called Act Promoting Consumer Choice and Competition of Cable Service would allow Verizon and other companies to preempt local control of the cable franchising process. Instead of local municipalities -- with the participation of local citizens and their local community representatives -- negotiating in good faith for better content, high-speed access to broadband, and quality digital services, Verizon proposes an expedited, but self-serving, single statewide franchise license that does nothing to improve choice or benefit consumers.

from: The Times

House passes cable competition bill
posted Online: 2007-06-02

STEPHANIE SIEVERS, sng2@springnet1.com, 217-524-5797, ,

SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois House passed legislation Thursday expected to bring greater cable competition by making it easier for high-tech video providers such as AT&T to break into local television service markets.