From: Columbia Tribune [1]
Phone companies seek cable market access
By JASON ROSENBAUM of the Tribune’s staff
Published Saturday, February 17, 2007
JEFFERSON CITY - The Missouri Senate gave initial approval Thursday to a bill that would shift licensing of cable TV companies from the cities where they operate to the Missouri Public Service Commission.
Phone companies have pushed for the bill for several years.
State Sen. John Griesheimer, R-Washington, the sponsor of the bill, said the move would bolster competition and lower prices for consumers. He said getting licensed by the PSC would simplify market access for phone companies such as AT&T or CenturyTel.
Municipalities now receive a franchise fee as well as several channels devoted to government affairs and community access in exchange for granting cable TV companies a franchise to operate.
The legislation worries Columbia officials about existing services.
Cities would still receive franchise fees under the Senate bill.
Columbia Assistant City Manager Paula Hartwig Hopkins said, however, that handing the PSC control of the franchising process might have unintended consequences, especially because the state agency has no experience dealing with cable companies.
"We get about 10 complaints about our cable operators on a monthly basis that are non-rate related," Hopkins said. "They have to do with not burying a cable, discourteous customer service, billing - complaints of that nature. And we get them here, and we try to do the best we can to help them answer those questions because many times Mediacom and cable don’t answer their phones, they don’t get back to people or they’re not courteous to people."
For years, Columbia and Mediacom have been negotiating new terms for their cable franchise agreement, which gives the city public access channels as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in franchise fees each year.
Mediacom is now operating in Columbia under a three-month extension of the old agreement. The extension expires in April. City officials are concerned that the cable TV bill might take effect before they have a new Mediacom agreement.
"Anything we’re negotiating now would be totally moot if the bill does away with local franchises," said Susan Crigler, an assistant city counselor with the city.
State Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, said the bill would provide for competition that would help consumers.
"I am a Mediacom customer," Graham said. "And because of the way my condo lays out, I have no view of the southern sky, so I can’t get a dish. I’d love to have another option through CenturyTel or a phone company, which I think could bring down some of the cable rates, because right now, I think they have an effective monopoly."
But local advocates of public access television fear the bill places onerous restrictions on public education and governmental channels, which could drive them off the air.
For example, the bill would require that public education and government, or PEG, channels provide original programming 40 hours a week.
Beth Federici of CAT3 TV in Columbia said there are still questions in the bill - such as who would have to pay for prohibitive costs for transmitting content - that would be detrimental to public access channels.
"We feel that many of the things that are in bill regarding the PEG channels are prohibitive," Federici said.
"They’re paying lip service to PEG, when you really read it - it would essentially put them out of business."