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Holland Sentinel

Wednesday, February 6, 2008
City's cable board sends letter of dissatisfaction to Comcast
BY ANDREA GOODELL
andrea.goodell@hollandsentinel.com (616) 546-4275

The proposed move of public access channels and complaints about customer service have city officials unhappy with their cable franchise.

Medina Gazette

Wadsworth irked over funding halt by Time Warner
February 6th, 2008
By MARIA KACIK
Staff Writer

The city of Wadsworth may take official action against Time Warner Cable after the company halted its funding of a portion of the city’s public education and government (PEG) programming on WCTV.

Forbes

Lawmakers meet with reps on cable bill
02.05.08, 1:24 PM ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh on Monday denied there's been a lack of transparency in the handling of a contentious proposal to change cable permitting rules in Tennessee to encourage broadband access around the state.

WMNF News

Public Access Channel goes on without county funds
02/05/08 Mitch E. Perry

After attempting to cut funding for years, the Hillsborough County Commission last fall pulled the plug on financing the county’s Public Access Channel.

Forced to reduce the budget dues to mandates from the state Legislature last year, the board also cut in half funding of the county’s Education Channel, and warned station operators that there may not be any funding at all next year. The third channel, the county’s Government channel, also saw its budget cut by more than $200,000 – but it’s entire budget is just a little less than $2-million.

The Nashville Post

Naifeh on cable-AT&T battle
Nashville Post
Ken Whitehouse
02/04/08

Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Jimmy Naifeh was joined by two Republican colleagues in his office to guarantee to the media that "there will be a bill brought before the state legislature" in the ongoing battle of AT&T vs. Cable.

Columbian Missourian

City to pay out $200,000 a year for CAT operating costs
By EMILIE RUSCH
February 5, 2008 | 12:07 p.m. CST

COLUMBIA — Funding problems could finally be a thing of the past for Columbia Access Television after the City Council voted early Tuesday morning in favor of a five-year contract that would pay out $200,000 a year for operating costs starting next fiscal year.

from: The Tennessean

Naifeh wants AT&T, Comcast to agree
Governor doubts rival cable businesses will compromise
By NAOMI SNYDER • Staff Writer • February 5, 2008

House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh and a bipartisan group of legislators vowed Monday to press ahead on legislation to allow AT&T to sell video services across Tennessee, despite doubts that a deal can be worked out with rival cable providers.

from: The Tennessean

AT&T's stand against franchising rules is potentially discriminatory

By BISHOP GEORGE PRICE • February 3, 2008

Almost a half-century ago, the battle for civil rights and equal opportunity raged throughout the communities of Tennessee.

from: MultiChannel News

Rehr Critical Of Cable Lawsuit
NAB President Critical ‘Disappointed” By Legal Action
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 2/6/2008 11:33:00 AM

Washington – The head of the National Association of Broadcasters is accusing C-SPAN and other major programmers of trying to scuttle the digital television transition by going to court to overturn federal regulations helpful to some TV stations.

from: Governing.com

Unscripted Ending
The picture gets blurry for public access television.

By JOSH GOODMAN

Public Access 2.0
• Watch clips of shows on the "new" public access, YouTube

Every Monday evening for more than a decade in Portage, Indiana, Gordon Bloyer stirred up trouble. The middle-aged, mustachioed Bloyer used his 6:30 p.m. television talk show to lambast elected officials in the city of 35,000 on the shore of Lake Michigan. Not only were Portage politicians powerless to cancel the Gordon Bloyer Show — although at times they tried — they also were, in a sense, subsidizing Bloyer's attacks on them: His show appeared on public access television. "People would get all upset," Bloyer says, sounding satisfied. "So I figured that's good."