Save Access

from: Columbus Dispatch

Public TV could be jeopardized, critics say

Sunday, June 3, 2007 6:29 AM
By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Fun with Grapes could be crushed, Your Mortgage Matters might not matter and the morning Traffic Watch could be stop and go.

Those and hundreds of other public-access and government television programs across Ohio would be jeopardized by proposed state legislation, critics charge.

Sponsors counter that Senate Bill 117 would provide consumers with more video choices at a lower cost.

The bill "threatens to undermine public, educational and government access television throughout the state of Ohio," said Logan Martinez, a Dayton-area resident and former legislative candidate who anchors and produces Citizen Impact, a public-access program.

The bill passed by the Ohio Senate had a second hearing last week in the House Public Utilities Committee.

The measure would transform how companies secure franchise approval by enacting a single, statewide agreement rather than a patchwork of local ones.

The bill's major backer is AT&T, the San Antonio-based telephone, wireless and broadband company, but it is also supported by a major competitor, Time Warner Cable. The companies say that anything that makes franchising easier and less expensive is good for the entire industry.

Jonathon McGee, executive director of the Ohio Cable Telecommunications Association, stole the show at a committee session last week by showing a brief video from Cleveland public-access television. It included four-letter words as well as racial and crude sexual references.

"Is what you've just seen representative of all access programming? Of course not," McGee said. "But it does demonstrate that there may be limits to how much public-access programming communities need or want."

Through local franchising agreements, cable companies provide public-access channels. In many cases, the money to operate them comes from franchise fees, also paid by cable companies.

The legislation would retain the public-access channels but would move them to more-costly cable packages, add programming requirements that operators say would be difficult to follow and eliminate funding when current franchises expire or in 2012, whichever comes first.

Although Columbus' public-access channel shut down about six years ago when the city eliminated funding, GTC3, the government-access channel, airs meetings of the City Council, Franklin County commissioners and other public functions including Traffic Watch, which uses robot cameras to monitor freeways.

Dayton is among the communities with thriving public-access programming, including offerings on winemaking (Fun with Grapes), ghosts (Haunted Middletown), and religion (Born Again Broadcast).

ajohnson@dispatch.com
For additional health information, visit OhioHealth