Saving Our Access TV Shows

It is no surprise that deregulation and an ongoing culture-wide movement towards marketplace-values would at some juncture present itself as a serious threat to Community Access TV (the non-commercial cable television correctly known as Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) TV). Contemporary America is a caustic environment for such basic media necessities as diversity, the ‘public-interest’, or equitable access to the media by the public. So it is no surprise that Access TV – founded on the core values of localism and commitment to not-for-profit public speech, would at some point find itself in the crosshairs of commercial-minded politicians and regulators. That time has now arrived. The question advocates for Community Access TV now must answer is “what are we going to do to defeat upcoming legislation that threatens the future of Access TV?”

Unifying a cluster of bills recently introduced in the House and Senate is a push to create a regulatory framework that is friendly to the introduction of broadband technology; or more exactly, a framework that is phone company-friendly for the introduction of broadband technology. Huge amounts of money are at stake as the Bells chomp at the opportunity to drastically reorganize the communication landscape to suit their own interest. From the point-of-view of Community Access TV advocates what unifies this legislation is that it all hinges on dismantling the local franchising system that is the cornerstone of PEG TV’s funding and framework of operation.

The challenge advocates for Access TV now face is mobilizing an effective campaign in opposition to this legislation; and developing an alternative view of what we want for the future. Access TV has a huge potential base of support. Each year over a million people volunteer at Public Access TV facilities nationwide, and over 250,000 community or not-for-profit groups of every imaginable political, cultural or religious stripe make and air programming. And the foundational principals of Access TV are built upon core national values regarding free speech, democratic discourse, and a belief in local autonomy and self-governance. This is a potentially potent constituency, and one that possess the ideological high ground in this battle over free speech and democracy.

There are pressing reasons why Access TV advocates must now begin to flex their political muscles. Over the next months there are likely to be additional hearings and development of the Broadband Internet Transmission Services (BITS) bill by the House Commerce Committee. In addition, in a move that is a symbolic victory for the anti-local-franchise telephone companies, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed a “Notice of Public Rulemaking” (NPRM) on the subject of franchising. In response there are immediate things Access TV advocates must do. The FCC’s “Video Franchise” NPRM allows for the submission of public comments (go to http://mnn.org/saveaccess/nprmhowto.html for an easy how-to). Historically the FCC has been fairly supportive of localism in the media and PEG TV in general, and has also tended to be fairly responsive to public testimony; therefore it is very important that municipal organizations, Access TV centers, and the public in general submit comments to this NPRM before February 13th.

In the long run if Access TV advocates are going to be effective they are going to have to build the nationwide infrastructure to organize and mobilize large numbers of people to voice their support for Community Media at hearings of the kind the FCC is planning, and in response to Congressional hearings as they are scheduled. It’s no secret that an army of phone company lobbyists are doing the rounds in Washington to push for this legislation, so Access TV advocates will need to be equally effective in their opposition to it, while also speaking clearly for an equitable and democratic media future. There are signs that this is beginning to happen. Recently in Manhattan (1-17-06) over one hundred Public Access TV producers and supporters assembled to launch “Save Our Shows” (SOS), a producer led initiative to mobilize support for Access TV.

One piece of this puzzle is the threat this legislation poses for Community Access TV; but there are other features that the public should be concerned about. Among them is the danger that a phone and cable company “duopoly” will emerge to dominate the “Video-Service” landscape without being required to support any kind of “network neutrality”. In other words, the coming media landscape could be one where whoever owns the fiber optic “pipe” gets to decide what flows through the “pipe”, and thus determines the kinds of information and program-content that is available in our homes and workplaces. Without the guarantee of network neutrality broadband providers would be able to bar or slow access to sites or services offered by their competitors.

Important resources about the danger this legislation poses, and how Access TV supporters can make sure any change in telecommunication rules supports the public-interest, can be found at http://freepress.net/defendlocalaccess/, http://www.mnn.org/saveaccess/ and http://www.pcmtv.org/.

Lyell Davies
Community Media Advocate