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from: Palm Beach Post

Cable law changes worry counties

By JASON SCHULTZ

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, June 15, 2007

Officials who run government-access TV channels on the Treasure Coast fear their days of providing easy access to government meetings for residents may be numbered because of a bill signed last month that rewrites rules for cable companies.

"The franchising company has the ability to take the channel back," said David Graham, who manages Martin County's government access channel, MCTV.

The bill, signed by Gov. Charlie Crist on May 18, takes effect July 1 and allows cable companies to get a statewide franchise license. The previous rules required a company to negotiate an exclusive contract with each local government and gave counties and cities the ability to ask for perks such as government-access channels.

"This takes away any leverage we have," said Kevin Kryzda, chief information officer for Martin County.

MCTV broadcasts county meetings on Channel 20 of Comcast's cable network. But Graham said the law would allow Comcast to cut the channel if MCTV cannot provide at least five hours or "non-repeat" programming each day.

The law is not clear on how often a program can be repeated, Graham said. If the cable company interprets the measure to mean that the county must provide five hours each day of shows that have not aired earlier in the week, then MCTV would probably not be able to produce enough programming, Graham said.

The channel has already had to scale back on its original programming because one of its employees left and his position will probably be eliminated because of budget cuts, Graham said.

St. Lucie County provides SLCTV on Comcast's cable network. Shane DeWitt, operations manager for SLCTV, said his channel produces six original programs per month and the rest are repeats of meetings. Much of the original programming may be eliminated because of budget cuts, DeWitt said, so his channel would also struggle to come up with enough non-repeat programming.

DeWitt said he is also worried about another part of the law that allows the cable company to move the government channels from the cheapest basic cable option to the digital cable option. That would force residents to pay higher rates to see the government meetings.

The cable provider said both counties were overreacting

Marta Casas-Celaya, director of government and community affairs for Comcast, said the cable company is still reviewing the law and hasn't determined how it will interpret the non-repeat programming clause or where it will place the government channels. But, she said, the stations will not be bumped off the air.

"That's not what the law says if they read it," she said.

Even if the stations stay on the air, Kryzda said he is worried that the law could have other effects on county services. For instance, the county leases a fiber-optic network from the cable provider as part of its franchise agreement for less than $200,000 per year, Kryzda said. The network connects the phones and computers of all county buildings.

But if the cable provider terminated that agreement, it could force the county to pay the fair market rate to use the fiber network, which Kryzda estimated would cost as much as $4 million per year. In anticipation of this, Kryzda said, he is exploring how much it would cost the county to build its own fiber network and then recoup the cost by leasing the service to local hospitals, schools, banks and other users.

The provisions of the new law would also only take effect if Comcast decided to opt out of its original franchise agreement with the counties and seek a state franchise or if those local agreements expire, Casas-Celaya said.

Comcast has not decided whether it will terminate early any of the existing local franchise agreements, she said.

"We've still not come to any conclusions yet," she said. "The agreements are still in effect."