SEATOA P-E-G Issues

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SEATOA Supports Public – Educational – Government (P-E-G) Access Channels

SEATOA believes our local Public, Education and Government (PEG) cable access channels serve critical community purposes, such as life-time learning, worker training, conveying emergency information, and keeping the community in touch with itself, its educational institutions and its elected officials.

New state cable laws are slowly dismantling these channels, by closing off funding and failing to penalize cable operators who refuse to provide required PEG channels, or who are illegally removing these channels from the federally-mandated lowest priced, basic tier of cable services. Some companies are designing their video network to degrade the quality of PEG channels via a web-like, sub-menu format.

SEATOA feels Federal intervention is necessary to arrest this loss of an important community resource, a resource allocated to local communities under federal law - the 1984 Cable Act.

P-E-G Legislative Issues Update:

SEATOA ACTIONS HELP DOUBLE NC PEG SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING

In early May, the North Carolina Senate Finance Committee received a report from the NC Department of Revenue (NCDOR) regarding the performance of the 2006 Video Services Competition Act (VSCA) as required by State law. The NCDOR reported that revenue from the telecommunications sales tax established by the VSCA had generated more funds than originally anticipated and that local governments were realizing greater revenues from the sales tax.

At the hearing regarding this issue, Senator Daniel Clodfelter (D-Mecklenburg) stated that since there were additional revenues available from the sales tax, consideration should be given to using some of those funds for increased support of the Public, Educational and Government (PEG) Access Channels operating in NC communities.

Under VSCA, the original PEG supplemental fund disbursements were capped at $2 million. And these funds were to be equally divided among the State's estimated 80 PEG channels – thus insuring the supplemental support amount of $25,000 for each channel annually. However, the State had underestimated the number of PEG channels and state-certified channels totaled more than 100 when the final numbers were reported to the NCDOR. Therefore, each channel’s supplemental funding was cut from $25,000 to approximately $15,000 annually.

Through the work of SEATOA – following up on Senator Clodfelter's assertion that consideration should be given to raising the PEG supplemental fund – NC State Representative Angela Bryant (D-Nash) introduced a measure which increased NC’s PEG supplemental fund from $2 million to $4 million beginning in July 2011. The measure was adopted as part of a 911 Funding Bill – with no vocal opposition.

SEATOA would like to thank Representative Bryant for introducing the additional measure regarding PEG funding, and Senator Clodfelter for shepherding it through the Senate.

Special thanks goes out to SEATOA President Catharine Rice for pushing this measure in Raleigh and to all PEG advocates throughout the state for keeping the pressure on our elected officials to continue to support PEG in North Carolina.

THE FUTURE OF MEDIA

As most of you are probably aware, the FCC recently released its National Broadband Plan laying out a framework to insure broadband accessibility to all Americans. In addition to this ambitious plan, the FCC also recently held a hearing on the future of media and took testimony from all parts of the media industry.

As part of its study of the future of media, the FCC invited comments from individuals and organizations as to where they believe media should be headed in years to come. Of course, SEATOA, and our national organization NATOA, believe that PEG access is an integral part of the future of media in this country. Given the continuing consolidation of the mass media, fewer and fewer large corporations are controlling what Americans see and hear. PEG channels insure that local communities have a vehicle to communicate local information and programming which are not available anywhere else.

NATOA filed very strong comments regarding PEG's role in the future of media. We invite all of you to read them by clicking on the link below, and we thank NATOA's President, Ken Fellman for his strong support of PEG as evidenced by NATOA's comments.

Link to NATOA’S full comments here

HELP PASS THE FEDERAL COMMUNITY ACCESS PRESERVATION ACT

SEATOA believes passage of the Community Access Preservation (CAP) Act is vital – for the reasons stated below – and encourages you to contact your federal representatives to ask them to both co-sponsor the bill and vote in favor of its passage. Although the CAP Act does not address all issues regarding PEG, it is an excellent first step in insuring the long-term health and viability of PEG.

Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) recently introduced the CAP Act to address some of the most pressing issues facing PEG channels as a result of the passage of statewide cable franchising bills in more than 20 states and unfavorable rulings regarding PEG by the FCC. The CAP Act - while it does not resolve all of the issues effecting communities’ abilities to continue to provide vital PEG services to their citizens - does address four key areas of importance.

1. The CAP Act would amend the Cable Act to insure that PEG support fees could be used for any PEG purpose. The bill addresses the FCC's ruling that PEG support negotiated in cable franchises - in addition to the franchise fee permitted under the Cable Act of 1984 – may only be used for facilities and equipment and not for PEG operations. This ruling has crippled the ability of many PEG operators, who depend on negotiated support in local franchises, to continue to provide valuable PEG services to their communities.

2. The CAP Act reaffirms Congressional intent to provide PEG on the lowest cable tier and requires cable providers to treat PEG channels in the same manner as all other local commercial channels. Many cable providers are now discriminating against PEG channels in the manner in which these channels are provided and in the placement of these channels on their systems. With the emergence of digital and internet technologies, cable providers have attempted to relegate PEG to the outer reaches of their digital tiers This is vividly illustrated by Comcast's decision to move PEG channels in Michigan to the 900 series of channels – and by AT&T's introduction of their U-Verse system which bundles all PEG channels in a given region onto one single channel (99) and requires viewers to use a complicated menu
system to watch their desired PEG channel.

Historically, cable operators have provided PEG channels, in the same manner as local commercial channels, to all subscribers, and without any additional charges. Recently this long-established practice has been abandoned by many cable providers who are now providing PEG in a less accessible, lower quality and more expensive manner to their subscribers. The clear intent of Congress under the Cable Act is to require that PEG be provided to all subscribers on the least expensive and most accessible tier of service, and that PEG channels be treated in the same manner as all other local commercial channels.

3. The CAP Act requires the FCC to study the effect of statewide franchising legislation on PEG and to report its findings to Congress. It also requires cable operators to continue to support PEG at the level required in each state franchising bill, or at the historical level of support they were required to
provide PEG prior to state franchising, whichever is greater.

4. The CAP Act clarifies that any provider using a wired system and using public rights-of-way to deliver their service are indeed subject to the rules under the Cable Act. The CAP Act amends the Cable Act to make it technology neutral, so that any provider offering cable service, through a wired system using public rights-of-way are subject to all rules under the Cable Act. Some providers, for example, those using Internet Protocol, have argued that they are not a cable service and therefore are not subject to the provisions of the Cable Act.

SEATOA would like to encourage all of its members to ask your representatives to support the CAP Act and to become co-sponsors of the legislation. Currently there are 13 co-sponsors, but strong bi-partisan support would be the most effective means of getting this legislation passed. Please contact our sister organization – the Alliance for Community Media at www.alliancecm.org for additional details regarding the CAP Act – as well as sample letters to send to your Congressional representatives. And be sure to let SEATOA know at seatoa@carolina.rr.com if you have successfully secured Congressional support for the bill.

P-E-G Programming Issues Update: Coming soon.


		P-E-G Issues
Home SEATOA Bylaws Join SEATOA Members Conference Executive Committee NATOA P-E-G Issues Policy Issues Contact Us Links		SEATOA Supports Public – Educational – Government (P-E-G) Access Channels SEATOA believes our local Public, Education and Government (PEG) cable access channels serve critical community purposes, such as life-time learning, worker training, conveying emergency information, and keeping the community in touch with itself, its educational institutions and its elected officials. New state cable laws are slowly dismantling these channels, by closing off funding and failing to penalize cable operators who refuse to provide required PEG channels, or who are illegally removing these channels from the federally-mandated lowest priced, basic tier of cable services. Some companies are designing their video network to degrade the quality of PEG channels via a web-like, sub-menu format. SEATOA feels Federal intervention is necessary to arrest this loss of an important community resource, a resource allocated to local communities under federal law - the 1984 Cable Act. P-E-G Legislative Issues Update: SEATOA ACTIONS HELP DOUBLE NC PEG SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING In early May, the North Carolina Senate Finance Committee received a report from the NC Department of Revenue (NCDOR) regarding the performance of the 2006 Video Services Competition Act (VSCA) as required by State law. The NCDOR reported that revenue from the telecommunications sales tax established by the VSCA had generated more funds than originally anticipated and that local governments were realizing greater revenues from the sales tax. At the hearing regarding this issue, Senator Daniel Clodfelter (D-Mecklenburg) stated that since there were additional revenues available from the sales tax, consideration should be given to using some of those funds for increased support of the Public, Educational and Government (PEG) Access Channels operating in NC communities. Under VSCA, the original PEG supplemental fund disbursements were capped at $2 million. And these funds were to be equally divided among the State's estimated 80 PEG channels – thus insuring the supplemental support amount of $25,000 for each channel annually. However, the State had underestimated the number of PEG channels and state-certified channels totaled more than 100 when the final numbers were reported to the NCDOR. Therefore, each channel’s supplemental funding was cut from $25,000 to approximately $15,000 annually. Through the work of SEATOA – following up on Senator Clodfelter's assertion that consideration should be given to raising the PEG supplemental fund – NC State Representative Angela Bryant (D-Nash) introduced a measure which increased NC’s PEG supplemental fund from $2 million to $4 million beginning in July 2011. The measure was adopted as part of a 911 Funding Bill – with no vocal opposition. SEATOA would like to thank Representative Bryant for introducing the additional measure regarding PEG funding, and Senator Clodfelter for shepherding it through the Senate. Special thanks goes out to SEATOA President Catharine Rice for pushing this measure in Raleigh and to all PEG advocates throughout the state for keeping the pressure on our elected officials to continue to support PEG in North Carolina. THE FUTURE OF MEDIA As most of you are probably aware, the FCC recently released its National Broadband Plan laying out a framework to insure broadband accessibility to all Americans. In addition to this ambitious plan, the FCC also recently held a hearing on the future of media and took testimony from all parts of the media industry. As part of its study of the future of media, the FCC invited comments from individuals and organizations as to where they believe media should be headed in years to come. Of course, SEATOA, and our national organization NATOA, believe that PEG access is an integral part of the future of media in this country. Given the continuing consolidation of the mass media, fewer and fewer large corporations are controlling what Americans see and hear. PEG channels insure that local communities have a vehicle to communicate local information and programming which are not available anywhere else. NATOA filed very strong comments regarding PEG's role in the future of media. We invite all of you to read them by clicking on the link below, and we thank NATOA's President, Ken Fellman for his strong support of PEG as evidenced by NATOA's comments. Link to NATOA’S full comments here HELP PASS THE FEDERAL COMMUNITY ACCESS PRESERVATION ACT SEATOA believes passage of the Community Access Preservation (CAP) Act is vital – for the reasons stated below – and encourages you to contact your federal representatives to ask them to both co-sponsor the bill and vote in favor of its passage. Although the CAP Act does not address all issues regarding PEG, it is an excellent first step in insuring the long-term health and viability of PEG. Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) recently introduced the CAP Act to address some of the most pressing issues facing PEG channels as a result of the passage of statewide cable franchising bills in more than 20 states and unfavorable rulings regarding PEG by the FCC. The CAP Act - while it does not resolve all of the issues effecting communities’ abilities to continue to provide vital PEG services to their citizens - does address four key areas of importance. 1. The CAP Act would amend the Cable Act to insure that PEG support fees could be used for any PEG purpose. The bill addresses the FCC's ruling that PEG support negotiated in cable franchises - in addition to the franchise fee permitted under the Cable Act of 1984 – may only be used for facilities and equipment and not for PEG operations. This ruling has crippled the ability of many PEG operators, who depend on negotiated support in local franchises, to continue to provide valuable PEG services to their communities. 2. The CAP Act reaffirms Congressional intent to provide PEG on the lowest cable tier and requires cable providers to treat PEG channels in the same manner as all other local commercial channels. Many cable providers are now discriminating against PEG channels in the manner in which these channels are provided and in the placement of these channels on their systems. With the emergence of digital and internet technologies, cable providers have attempted to relegate PEG to the outer reaches of their digital tiers This is vividly illustrated by Comcast's decision to move PEG channels in Michigan to the 900 series of channels – and by AT&T's introduction of their U-Verse system which bundles all PEG channels in a given region onto one single channel (99) and requires viewers to use a complicated menu system to watch their desired PEG channel. Historically, cable operators have provided PEG channels, in the same manner as local commercial channels, to all subscribers, and without any additional charges. Recently this long-established practice has been abandoned by many cable providers who are now providing PEG in a less accessible, lower quality and more expensive manner to their subscribers. The clear intent of Congress under the Cable Act is to require that PEG be provided to all subscribers on the least expensive and most accessible tier of service, and that PEG channels be treated in the same manner as all other local commercial channels. 3. The CAP Act requires the FCC to study the effect of statewide franchising legislation on PEG and to report its findings to Congress. It also requires cable operators to continue to support PEG at the level required in each state franchising bill, or at the historical level of support they were required to provide PEG prior to state franchising, whichever is greater. 4. The CAP Act clarifies that any provider using a wired system and using public rights-of-way to deliver their service are indeed subject to the rules under the Cable Act. The CAP Act amends the Cable Act to make it technology neutral, so that any provider offering cable service, through a wired system using public rights-of-way are subject to all rules under the Cable Act. Some providers, for example, those using Internet Protocol, have argued that they are not a cable service and therefore are not subject to the provisions of the Cable Act. SEATOA would like to encourage all of its members to ask your representatives to support the CAP Act and to become co-sponsors of the legislation. Currently there are 13 co-sponsors, but strong bi-partisan support would be the most effective means of getting this legislation passed. Please contact our sister organization – the Alliance for Community Media at www.alliancecm.org for additional details regarding the CAP Act – as well as sample letters to send to your Congressional representatives. And be sure to let SEATOA know at seatoa@carolina.rr.com if you have successfully secured Congressional support for the bill. P-E-G Programming Issues Update: Coming soon.