Comments to NATOA from Indianapolis' Cable Communications Agency on how public access TV was ended.
Written by Administrator
Friday, 26 March 1999
Comments to the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) from Indianapolis' Cable Communications Agency Director, Rick Maultra, on how public access TV was eliminated.
-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Maultra <
>
To:
<
>
Date: Friday, March 26, 1999 10:15 AM
Subject: Re: LA to Drop PEG Access Channels ?
>I thought I would share some thoughts regarding the LA public access situation
>as well as respond to a previous list serve message about Comcast's treatment
>of public access in light of the Media One merger.
>
>Here in Indianapolis we have Comcast and Time Warner. When the City renewed
>the franchise agreements for both in 1996, public access was dropped. There
>were a number of dynamics that played into this:
>
>First of all, the cable operators lobbied the City that they wanted to get out
>of public access.
>The bottom line is that it is not a revenue generator. We also had the issue
>of 'inappropriate programming'. One example was a guy that would sit on a
>stool and smoke a water pipe, speaking gibberish for an indeterminate length
>of time until such time that he passed out and fell off his stool. Suffice it
>to say that such programming isn't well received in the Bible Belt. Public
>access groups can make all of First Amendment/Free Speech arguments they want
>to about keeping A-Z programming on access but in the final analogy they don't
>negotiate the franchise agreements. Access television is treated much
>differently today than it was two decades ago when the operators would promise
>the community anything so as to set up shop.
>
>Regarding Comcast in their treatment of public access: here in Indianapolis,
>prior to the 1996 renewal Comcast's commitment toward public access could only
>be described as pitiful. There 'studio' was a house trailer behind their
>operations facility that had six foot ceilings with a few lights stuck to
>them. I think there were two cameras. Comcast did very little to promote
>usage and it became self-fullfilling as public access rode off into the
>sunset. Time Warner on the other hand, had a very active public access studio
>and training department. They even had an annual banquet for their access
>users where they gave out awards and the local GM/President even attended.
>Those public access users that were involved in Time Warner are still very
>active today in lobbying and organizing to get back on. They have recently
>presented a very impressive business plan to our Cable Franchise Board. That
>business plan certainly reflects what are perceived to be past mistakes in
>addressing 'inappropriate programming'.
>
>Finally, further disincentive to maintaining public access stems from the fact
>that cable operators such as Time Warner and Comcast are continually involved
>in their own local origination programming. TW has at least a couple of
>around the clock local news operations in New York and Florida and Comcast has
>its regional local network on the East Coast. They might perceive other
>localized programming to compete or duplicate their own.
>
>Rick Maultra
>City of Indianapolis
>Cable Communications Agency
>
>Dragovich, Peter wrote:
>
>> In my opinion, public access needs to find ways to adapt to the Internet,
>> including producing content that can be accessed via both the Internet and
