Note: Saveaccess will be liveblogging this hearing - join us online [1] Tuesday at 1:00 pm (EST)

TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE ALLIANCE FOR COMMUNITY MEDIA

A rare and historic Congressional hearing on PEG access television is being held this Tuesday, Jan 29th, 1:00 pm (EST): "Public, Educational, and Governmental (PEG) Services in the Digital TV Age."

ACM member Annie Folger, Executive Director of the Midpeninsula Community Media Center in Palo Alto, will be one of the hearing's witnesses. Full Witness List [2]

This House Telecommunications Subcommittee hearing is in response to attempts by Comcast to move all their access channels in Michigan to the 900s - a move which would require all analog service subscribers to obtain a more expensive digital set-top box for each of their TV sets. Comcast contended that recently passed legislation in Michigan allowed this move. A number of Michigan cities disagreed and filed suits, succeeding in temporarily stopping the move. On January 15 the House Commerce Committee, chaired by John Dingell (MI), issued this press release [3] on the matter, calling for a hearing.

This hearing provides a number of unique opportunities for PEG access advocates to have their voices heard, to halt perhaps and maybe even roll back some of the recent assaults on PEG access channels. Recent legislative assaults against communities' access channels include:

* Loss of funding (Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina; Florida and Georgia will end in 3-4 years)
* Loss of capital payments (no payments have been made in Indiana)
* Costly new AT&T transmission fees (in Ohio, centers estimate $100,000 of annual fees just to transmit signals now transmitted free as franchise commitments for use of rights-of-way)
* Channel slamming - the shifting of PEG access channels to outer, unwatched reaches (Florida and Michigan)
* Charges for boxes to receive PEG access on digital tiers (Florida and Michigan)
* New limits of number of localities served by their own PEG channels (AT&T in Nevada and Ohio is limiting the number of PEG channels based on how many communities are served by their transmission hubs)
* Loss of ability to send closed-captioning or SAP signals
* Loss of viewers' ability to record PEG programming
* Loss of free cable drops to schools, libraries, police stations, and other municipal facilities (Michigan)

Here are a number of actions we all can take which will help ensure our message of protecting local access channels is effectively heard. We urge you all to make your voice heard in this matter as much as is possible.

1. BEFORE TUESDAY'S HEARING:

Fax to your congressional representatives your concerns that PEG access channels should not be weakened, reduced, or eliminated by FCC actions, state legislation, or onerous requirements such as AT&T's U-Verse. Follow up that fax with a phone call to your representative's telecommunications staff person. A list of the Telecommunications Subcommittee members' phone and fax numbers are below. If your representatives are not on that Subcommittee, ask them to share your concerns with all those members from your state's delegation who are.

If you officially represent an access channel, of course use your channel's letterhead for your fax, and include some information about the reach and impact of your channel(s). See for example the letter from Salem, Oregon's Capital Community Television, also attached.

Please also send your faxes to us here at the ACM - 202-393-2653.

2. DURING TUESDAY'S HEARING:

Listen to the hearing streamed live [4], and - this is important - carefully note the impact made by your state's representatives.

3. AFTER TUESDAY'S HEARING:

* Follow up with your congressional representatives, with both a fax and a phone call. Thank them if they took supportive action, call them out if they were silent, and express your dissatisfaction if they took actions hostile to PEG access.

* Write op-eds or letters to the editors of your local papers about the hearings. Respond on-line to press and blog posts about the hearings wherever comments are allowed. Visit our press clippings [5] blog to stay on top of this story.

* Contact your ACM regional leaders [6]to stay informed about further actions being coordinated by the ACM to protect PEG access channels.

* Plan to attend the ACM conference [7] in Washington, D.C., July 9-12. A central feature of this year's conference will be attendees' coordinated visits to their congressional representatives’ offices.

We sincerely thank you for your participation, and for your on-going commitment and contributions to your communities. Please call us if you have any questions.

from: The Alliance for Community Media

Congressional Commerce SubCommittee Contacts: