Save Access

The Alliance for Community Media today is asking the Platform Committees of the Democratic and Republican National Committees to embrace policies protecting local cable franchising authorities’ ability to require PEG access channels and adequate mechanisms for supporting them within their franchise agreements.  From the Alliance’s Platform Statement: In summary, the ACM proposes a national policy of [...]

Seven-Year-Old To Use Cable Show To Protect Sound by David Funkhouser Hartford Courant (CT) 07/12/08 [ 4 comments ] Seven-year-old Daphne Tucker will be hosting a segment of her family’s cable TV show to recruit 100 fellow third-graders to become junior oceanographers and advocates for Long Island Sound.  Daphne’s father is naturalist and videographer Scott Tucker, of Haddam, who produces [...]

Statehouse Secrets: Beacon Hill does its most important business behind closed doors by Edward Mason The Eagle-Tribune (MA) 05/04/08 [ comments invited ] Lawrence resident Bill Collins likes to keep an eye on Massachusetts lawmakers as they find ways to spend his money. So Collins is disappointed the House budget debate that used to be on television can only [...]

Reflecting an Internet Decade with John Perry Barlow by Ben Walker, with Charlie Nesson Berkman Center for Internet and Society 04/11/08 In the March 1994 issue of Wired, Berkman fellow John Perry Barlow fired a revolutionary shot heard ’round the world. In his essay The Economy of Ideas he announced to the world that everything we know about intellectual property is [...]

Sirius/XM Merger an Opportunity for Openness & Access? LPFM for Satellite? by Paul Riismandel mediageek 05/03/08 [ comments invited ] Matthew Lasar continues his excellent reporting for Ars Technica with an article on a recent letter from House Energy and Commerce Chair John Dingell (D-MI) and Internet subcommittee Chair Edward J. Markey (D-MA) to the FCC urging an open platform [...]

Public-access TV LTE by Mark Hart, Statewide Organizer, Florida Media Coalition Miami Herald (FL) 05/02/08 The state Legislature apparently will miss the opportunity to revisit the Consumer Choice Act of 2007 and address its unintended consequences on public-, educational- and government-access cable TV (PEGs). The bill has potentially legislated out of existence PEGs, once the great promise of cable-TV franchise [...]

“Broadcasting, Voice, and Accountability” Book Offers Tools to Foster Independent Broadcast Media in Developing Countries The World Bank 05/02/08 People from the foothills of the Himalayas to small communities in Benin listen to the radio or watch TV. Now a new book seeks to help developing countries foster a diverse broadcasting sector that truly informs and empowers their citizens. “Broadcasting, [...]

Compromise cable TV bill goes to governor by Richard Locker Commercial Appeal (TN) 05/01/08 [ 23 comments ] The state Senate gave final legislative approval today to the compromise bill designed to streamline the entry of AT&T and others into the Tennessee market for cable-television services.  The House of Representatives approved the Competitive Cable and Video Services Act 93-2 on [...]

EAS: Act locally, think regionally by Thomas G. Robinson CedMagazine.com 05/01/08 As cable communications systems have evolved from solo headends to master headend and hub configurations and then to regional super headends, the concept of the local emergency override seems to have gotten lost in the complexity of it all. The original local emergency overrides go back to the glory [...]

Live from a big ol’ van . . . Mobile at the nonprofit tech conference, New Orleans 2.5 years after Katrina, and a jazz archive in peril . . . by Jen Gilomen, Lead Developer of Strategic Initiatives, BAVC 04/30/08 [ comments invited ] Saint Louis Cathedral, French QuarterWhen Hurricane Katrina hit, David Freedman was thinking about the history of [...]

Cable bill off to the Senate Officials hope act will create more competition in Tenn. by Richard Locker Commercial Appeal (TN) 04/29/08 [ 3 comments ] The state House overwhelmingly approved the three-year-old effort to induce more competition for cable television services in Tennessee Monday.  Representatives voted 93-2 to send the “Competitive Cable and Video Services Act” to the Senate, where [...]

[ Here's what you call one of them 'anecdotal' reports of the positive effects of PEG access programming.  Just as with our friendly smiles and "good morning" greetings to strangers, sometimes we never know the positive effects our actions have.  Stories like this are among the reasons we're driven to keep these channels alive and [...]

Spirit Freed II Art Exhibit Perspective Prisms (TX) 04/27/08 [ comments invited ] Paintings by San Antonio artist Rita Maria Contreras for an exhibit at the Oblate School of Theology in the Spring of 2008. The theme of the exhibit is the pain suffered by children of sexual abuse. The event was in conjunction with a talk by Patrick [...]

Backyard Permaculture in Oregon: Peak Moment TV by Sami Grover Treehugger 04/26/08 [ 3 comments ] It’s been a while since we checked in on Peak Moment TV, the innovative public access TV show bringing you “Community Responses for a Changing Energy Future”. In the episode above, Peak Moment explores White Sage Gardens, an Oregon experiment in backyard permaculture-informed sustainability [...]

Verizon TV proposal needs tuning by Juan Gonzalez New York Daily News 04/25/08 [ 8 comments ] Telecom giant Verizon has finally submitted its long-awaited proposal for a competing cable television franchise for New York City.  If you live in the Bronx, Brooklyn or Queens and you’re eager to ditch Time Warner or Cablevision, take a number. Verizon plans to offer [...]

Killing TV Softly — Lone Star Public Access Survives, Barely by Nathan Diebenow The Lone Star Iconoclast (TX) 04/15/08 What if there was a television channel on which you could watch whatever you wanted? Anytime throughout the day, the content from his station would follow your heart’s desire. You have a pension for the history of your town. It’s [...]

La. Senate panel OKs TV change nola.com (LA) 04/23/08 BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — State government, not police juries and city councils, should control the franchise fee process for television service around the state, a Senate panel voted on Wednesday.  The chief supporter of the bill [Senate Bill 422 - http://legis.state.la.us/ ] , AT&T Inc., said the change [...]

State video franchising: Where are the competitors? by Bill Callahan Callahan’s Cleveland Diary (OH) 04/21/08 [ comments invited ] This post and comments at BFD got me wondering: How’s that brave new world of competitive IPTV and sizzling broadband that Ohioans were promised last summer — when the General Assembly overwhelmingly approved and the Governor happily signed SB 117, AT&T’s [...]

Video franchise bills all take; where’s the give? by Mike Stagg Lafayette Pro Fiber (LA) 04/20/08 [ comments invited ] The statewide video franchise bills up for consideration in the Louisiana Legislature are, in fact, bad news as John and the LMA (pdf) have made clear. But, based on the 2006 experience where only Governor Blanco’s veto prevented a version [...]

Grassroots Media to Support Local Community TV by Colin Rhinesmith Community Media in Transition 04/19/08 [ comments invited ] The following message is from a post to the Action Coalition for Media Education e-list from Liza Dichter (Center for International Media Action): “FROM: Chrissy Harmon: mom, teacher and brand-new community media maker…. Can you take 4 minutes to watch some grassroots media [...]