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2006 Year in Review and Looking Ahead to 2007 2006 was to be the year of major telecommunications deregulation, and for citizens in Indiana, the push from the Baby Bells to ease their entry into the video services market quickly became reality. It was also the year that we witnessed the largest telecom merger in history with the union of AT&T and BellSouth.
| Looking Ahead to 2007 | | While telecommunications companies are expected to focus their legislative deregulation efforts at the state level in 2007, there are several other national issues to keep our eyes on in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC): | - Court challenge to FCC December 2006 Order on video franchising
- Minority ownership of broadcast media
- Digital (e.g. music and video) rights management
- Media ownership caps and FCC hearings (possibly Chicago and Ohio)
- Preserving net neutrality—maintaining the current system of a level playing field on the Internet in terms of speed and ease of access for all traffic.
- Copyright reform
- Transition to Digital TV
- Spring window for radio licensing for full power, noncommercial/educational stations
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While telecommunications legislation languished in Congress due to the “net roots” effort to include net neutrality, the Indiana Statehouse quickly passed legislation that deregulated telephone rates and introduced an in perpetuity video franchising certificate to replace local cable franchising contracts. Public interest groups were able to preserve the ability of local governments to provide municipal broadband, and the new video franchising laws have provisions for the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC), the new statewide video franchise authority, to increase the number of public, educational, and government (PEG) access channels. I am very proud of the members of PAI and the access TV communities around the state who understood the enormity of what was at stake, and rallied to make sure statewide video franchising would not be the death knell of access TV in Indiana. And we quickly rallied again, when Bright House Networks attempted to negotiate a new local cable franchise agreement before the state video franchising law went into effect. We pushed for a much needed public access TV channel. The number of supporting community groups, churches and local businesses grew to over 60. We received an endorsement from the Indianapolis Star. We saw promising signs of support from key members of the Indianapolis City County Council, but still not from Mayor Bart Peterson. In the end, Bright House Networks wanted to provide fewer access channels—a showstopper in the negotiations with the Cable Franchise Board. Bright House Networks will come under the purview of the IURC when its current franchise expires in 2008, whereas Comcast has already opted to come under the new state video franchise license that regulates the activities of other video providers like AT&T. Looking ahead, we now have the challenge of working with both the city and the IURC in securing a public access TV channel. And there are many unknowns with the IURC, including the rules they might make to initiate new access channels when a local government, like ours, has not been responsive to the requests of the community. Or whether they can or will enforce cable TV customer service standards. But after a tumultuous year on the legislative front, it is good to know that the door is still open for public access TV in Indianapolis. It is up to us to go through it. Andrea Price
Board President of Public Access of Indianapolis
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