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from: Star Tribune

Our View: Local cable and all its services are threatened

Rick Talbot And Steve Larson

CTV-15 celebrates its 15th anniversary this month but may have to close its door soon after that if proposed federal legislation becomes law.

For 15 years, CTV has provided equipment and training for more than 3,000 residents of the cities of Arden Hills, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, Little Canada, Mounds View, New Brighton, North Oaks, Roseville, St. Anthony and Shoreview to produce their own video programs. Cable subscribers in these 10 cities have had an opportunity to watch high school football and city parades, local hockey games and public hearings on the disposition of the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP) property, as well as concerts of the St. Anthony Civic Orchestra, the Roseville Community Band and the Northern Lights Variety Band. From "Disability Viewpoints" to "Trek Talk," local community producers have had an opportunity to share their interests and their passions with their neighbors.

CTV-15 has also taken the lead in supporting local and state democracy by providing thousands of hours of election coverage in the past 15 years. Every year, candidates are invited into the studio to videotape a five-minute message to voters that is cablecast repeatedly on the channel and now webstreamed on our website before the election, and we have worked closely with League of Women Voters chapters and chambers of commerce to videotape candidate forums for cablecast on the public access channel. And, on election night, CTV-15 staff and 30 to 40 volunteers work for hours to provide election results and interviews with winners and losers about the issues they think are important for their communities.

Unfortunately, all of this could come to an end if legislation now being considered by Congress is approved as currently drafted. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, has introduced a bill called the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement (COPE) Act of 2006 that would cut CTV-15's funding by 80 percent, from $1 million to a little over $200,000. CTV-15 would no longer be able to afford to provide the training, equipment and other technical support that enable our producers to create the kind of programming our viewers have come to expect, not only on our Channel 15, but on the school districts' and cities' cable channels.

There are other problems with Barton's bill.

For one, although it is supposed to eliminate so-called "barriers" to the competitive provision of cable television services by telephone companies, the COPE bill would preempt state law and local franchises that require cable television providers to serve an entire city and allow the new providers to cherry-pick where they provide service. The telephone companies have told financial analysts on Wall Street that they are only interested in serving "high value" customers, so portions of our communities may not see real competition in our neighborhoods.

In addition, although the bill looks like it leaves management of the public rights-of-way to local governments, in fact, all disputes about local rights-of-way rules and regulations must be appealed to the Federal Communications Commission, not state court. This puts ultimate control of our local streets and roads in the hands of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., a thousand miles away. Furthermore, it is hard to imagine untrained officials trying to resolve a local dispute over an ill-placed 6-foot-high fiber box in a resident's yard.

Of equal concern, in order to get a national license to provide cable television service, all an applicant has to do is file the company's name, address and telephone number with the FCC. Although the bill was written to benefit telephone companies Verizon, AT&T and Qwest, the reality is that, under this scheme, a bankrupt, convicted felon could apply for a license and, 30 days later, start digging up the streets in our cities.

If you believe in localism, in being able to watch your local government or your next-door neighbor on television, and in control of your local rights-of-way management, contact the members of Minnesota's Congressional delegation immediately. Otherwise, this will be the last time that CTV-15 celebrates an anniversary.

Falcon Heights City Council Member Rick Talbot and New Brighton Mayor Steve Larson are chairman and vice chairman of the North Suburban Access Corp./CTV-15 board of directors.