In brighter news, Barnegat, New Jersey is launching a new PEG channel, and Portsmouth, NH is looking to follow suit.

Report: D.C. wasted $4 million on TV studio

The D.C. agency that regulates cable television in the city “wasted over $4 million” on a high-definition television studio that was never built, according to a report from the Office of the Inspector General.

The report, released late last week, says the D.C. Office of Cable Television violated procurement policies by issuing a sole-source contract to a start-up company “without adequate justification and reasonable assurance” that the contractor could do the work.

In addition to the cost of the contract, which was canceled before the project was completed, the cable TV office bought more than $3 million in new HDTV equipment that was never installed or used. [ link ]

Barnegat contracts with Comcast

Barnegat Township television watchers potentially could be locked into their cable TV arrangement for the next quarter of a century after the Township Committee adopted an ordinance finalizing a contract with Comcast during its Dec. 21 meeting.

The agreement allows for a 15-year contract, with a 10-year renewal option. Comcast will give the township a $65,000 technology grant and two local access channels, which will be used by the municipal government and the Board of Education.

“The most important aspect is the government channel,” Breeden said. “We need to get that channel up and running as early as possible.” [ link ]

Evanston Considers Cuts to Its Public TV Station

A threat by the City of Evanston to sharply cut its contribution to the local community-access television station is making the tiny Evanston Community Media Center the latest front in a fight over money collected as franchise fees.

Evanston, facing a $9.5 million budget deficit, is considering cutting its contribution to the station to $200,000 from about $400,000 that it paid last year. Municipalities collect franchise fees from cable companies and typically pass roughly half the money to the local public-access stations.[ link ]

Public access station leadership sought

Given the wonderfully diverse and articulate population of the Seacoast, it is surprising that Portsmouth does not have a public access television channel.

Sensing the potential and responding to the expressed desire of residents, the City Council recently approved the establishment of a nonprofit organization to develop public access television. To be called Portsmouth Public Media Inc., this endeavor could be up and running as early as late this year. It will air programs on the Internet and television simultaneously, and programs will be archived on the Web site providing viewers access at their leisure. [ link ]

Cablevision, the local cable provider, moved all PEG channels as well as 16 other analog channels to the digital spectrum, thus moving them “further down the dial”. However, Cablevision’s own news channel (News 12) has not moved.

If it is so important for Cablevision to convert its systems from analog to digital in order to free up capacity for more services like high definition television, one can only wonder why important public service PEG channels were the first to be cut from basic analog service (both in Yonkers and in Eastern Long Island) while Cablevision’s own news channel (News 12) was allowed to remain.
Phil Amicone

Amicone’s issue isn’t with the inconvenience that the move makes, but rather the costs involved to watch digital television. Digital plans cost more because they require renting a set-top box. Those that can’t afford the increased costs are left with a degradation in Cablevision’s basic service plan. [ link ]

• Removes use restrictions on PEG access fees;
• Ends operators’ discriminatory treatment of PEG channels;
• Directs the FCC to study and report on the effects recent states’ video franchising legislation have had on PEG access; and
• Defines all video services delivered to the home over wire as “cable” for the purposes of the act, regardless of the transmission protocol used.

The Alliance for Community Media worked with Congresswoman Baldwin to craft this bill (HR 3745). The goal of our Preserve Community Access Now campaign is to get co-sponsors for the bill in the House, get a version filed in the Senate, get the bill passed by Congress, and signed by the President – before the summer recess

More info about this important legislation and how you can participate if you wish to contact your Congressional Representative and Representative Baldwin to voice your support can be found at http://www.alliancecm.org/cap.

White House outlines government transparency plan

The White House directed federal agencies to make the workings of government more transparent by publishing more data online and drafting plans to allow for greater public participation.
The “Open Government Directive” released by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) describes the principles of “transparency, participation, and collaboration” as the “cornerstone of an open government.” [ link ]

Cut the cable tax: Leaner local access TV

If you live in Manchester and have cable TV, 5 percent of your Comcast bill amounts to a tax paid to the city. It’s called a “franchise fee,” but it’s a tax, and a wasteful one at that.

PEG channels want more support

Wisconsin’s PEG channels say changes are needed in the cable industry to keep them alive.

Legislation passed two years ago changed how cable companies are required to support Public, Education, and Government channels. Wisconsin Association of PEG Channels director Mary Cardona says it’s making it harder for them to stay on the air by ending support for many stations. [ link ]

CityCable Channel 11 earns international awards

Scottsdale CityCable Channel 11 programming has captured three awards in a prestigious international competition sponsored and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals.

The results were announced today, Dec. 8, by the association, which consists of several thousand production, marketing, communication, advertising, public relations and freelance professionals. [ link ]

Cost-sharing agreement over ALCo a possibility

La Porte County commissioners could take formal action on a cost-sharing agreement tonight to continue public access and government programming now provided by Access La Porte County.

Mayor Chuck Oberlie recently met with commissioners Barb Huston, Mike Bohacek and Ken Layton to discuss the idea. Layton said any agreement would depend on bid results as the city requests bids for vendors in addition to ALCo for providing the services. [ link ]

Cable TV Changes Coming to Dubuque

The possibility of a new cable provider in Dubuque means Mediacom is ending it’s agreement with the city. Mediacom isn’t leaving Dubuque, but it’s not required to provide all the perks. Flipping through Mediacom cable in Dubuque looks the same as anywhere else. But customers may not realize that cable follows a very detailed service agreement with the City of Dubuque. [ link ]

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Hits Hulu: Which Episodes Do You Demand?

Recent Saw sequels and Diane Keaton projects validate that film mockery is necessary to our lives. A real shame, because the practice was mastered, patented, and cemented in time on the finest cult TV show of the 1990s, Mystery Science Theater 3000. Beginning as Twin Cities public access programming in 1988 before expanding to The Comedy Channel (which became Comedy Central) and ending its run on Sci Fi, MST3K followed a space-traveling adventurer — first creator Joel Hodgson, then Michael Nelson starting in ‘93 — who was forced to watch terrible movies with his snappy robot pals. [ link ]

Error puts strippers on public access TV

Viewers expecting to see the latest local meeting on their public access channel got an eyeful recently when Cablevision played a tape of nude dancers accidentally. The mistake affected customers in parts of Dutchess, Ulster, Putnam and Orange counties.

Hopewell Junction resident George Morton returned home from Palm Sunday Mass and turned on his television to see a striptease contest. [ link ] (The comments to this short article are pretty funny)

Cable TV rates up despite deregulation, audit says

As a result of a statewide audit report released Tuesday, legislators are introducing a bill they hope will regulate the cable television industry and lower increasing monthly rates.

Since deregulation of the industry in 2007, basic cable rates have increased more than 20 percent in communities with competition, according to the 18-page Legislative Audit Bureau report. [ link ]

City of Port Orchard Likely to Cut Ties With BKAT

The City of Port Orchard is considering severing its ties with BKAT, the public access television station that broadcasts city council meetings. Mayor Lary Coppola is floating a proposal to broadcast meetings on the city’s Web site instead.

The move would save the city nearly $8,000 per year and make watching the meetings easier for city residents, a large number of whom have Internet access, said Coppola at a work study meeting with the council Wednesday. [ link ]

YCAT Takes Lead In Channel 12 Debate

Your Community Access Television’s proposal is leading the pack that wants to oversee Benton’s public access television channel, but the race is by no means over.

In a meeting Thursday night of the City Council’s Community Services Committee, five council members voted to recommend the YCAT proposal to the council when it meets Dec. 14. [ link ]

Editorial: Collier public schools panel should just flip TV camera on

This newspaper is on the record many times as favoring the fullest public access to government meetings, especially those at the grass-roots level.

We continue to encourage the Collier County Public Schools’ academics committee to following the lead of its operations committee and have its meetings televised. [ link ]

PEG Channels’ New Best Friend

We’ve all had that experience where someone suddenly becomes your “best pal” because they want something from you or can use your friendship in some way. For most of us, that kind of sidling up is excruciatingly transparent and usually disgusting.

In a publicized memo (see “Letter to FCC Outlines Deal Commitments,” Multichannel.com, Dec. 3), Comcast highlighted its commitment to localism, the public interest and PEG channels. [ link ]

Student’s Films On Air

A Niskayuna High School student is going to Poughkeepsie. No big deal, you say? How about if it involves Niskayuna senior and student computer animator Chris Perrella having two of his short films selected to be on the latest season of the internationally known Poughkeepsie-based program “DROP TV”? [ link ]

Comcast, city reach agreement on 10-year deal

After years of stop-and-go negotiating, the city recently signed a cable television renewal license contract with Comcast of Southern New England that could be worth more than $9 million over the next decade, Assistant Corporation Counsel John Coughlin said Friday. [ link ]

City reconsiders contracts with public access TV

City taxpayers could benefit if the Board of Mayor and Aldermen decide to change the contracts with the city’s two public access television stations, MCTV and MCAM. [ link ]

Shaw Cable Undermines Local TV (Again)

The Georgia Strait is reporting that Metro Vancouver’s public access television station, carried by Calgary-based Shaw Cable, has, without warning or heed for producers, writers, and local talent, re-branded the station as a “Shaw” outlet.
Charlie Smith, writing for The Strait points out that, unfortunately, this is just the latest in a long string of failings by Shaw to support the independence and community function of public access channels. [ link ]

Dedication drives community TV in Western Pennsylvania

Moon Community Access Television, Mt. Lebanon, Plum, and North Allegheny featured in this article on the amount of dedication given to local PEG Channels in Western Pennsylvania. It’s a very nice article that shows what the day-to-day is like for those who work at the stations.

I-Team: Lights. Camera. Taxpayer Money.

“As Miami-Dade continues to lay off employees to balance its budget, CBS4 has discovered taxpayers will pay nearly two million dollars this year for a government run TV station. While it may not seem like much, that’s eleven times what it costs in Broward County. The money in Miami-Dade is going to salaries and in many cases these county television employees are doing better than the private industry.”

In a follow up article on his blog, Sutta highlights the actually salaries of employees at Miami-Dade TV, which average over $78,895.

AT&T is finally making available three public TV channels that really should have been there at launch.

The company doesn’t deserve a kudos for it. It deserves an exasperated sigh.

Fayetteville leaders announced Friday that Fayetteville Public Schools Television, The Government Channel and Community Access Television are now offered through AT&T’s U-verse system.

Charter can move public access group

Efforts to stop the local cable company from relocating public access, education and government (PEG) channels by 13 local municipalities plus Traverse City was denied in Eastern District Court Monday.

The Mid Michigan Area Cable and Telecommunications Consortium and the city of Traverse City were denied a temporary restraining order Monday to prevent Charter from their plan of action.

Live TV from the Capitol, it’s the Colorado Senate

No one’s expecting TV critics to take notice, but the Colorado Channel — the legislature’s cable access channel — returns to the airwaves this session with a new offering in its lineup.

The Colorado Senate is going live in 2010, following in the footsteps of the House, which has been broadcasting live video of its floor proceedings for the past two sessions.

Kenton TV pioneer Jim Best retires

The strength of the signal won’t budge, but the force behind the programming might dim a little as the Kenton County School District transitions to a new captain to drive their video production and cable access programming.

Jim Best, a former teacher who pioneered the broadcasting of school district events on public access television, has retired.

Provincetown cable channel foresees local videos

Cable television advocates in Provincetown have a vision for a public-use television channel that could unify — and even electrify — this coastal tourist and artists’ town, following the recent finalization of a 10-year contract with Comcast.

The City along with its handpicked operator, Bay Area Video Coalition, are planning to close the Community Access Television Center on Dec. 20 without another location where programmers can produce their shows. A picket and press conference will be held on this attack on community access and free speech on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 4 p.m., at Channel 29, 1720 Market St. at Valencia, San Francisco.

ALCO’S Future Uncertain

Michigan City’s government and public access channels will probably go off the air Jan. 1 once the city’s contract expires, and officials aren’t sure when they might return.

Our Voice: Local governments should allow public access to broadcast on cable TV

The audacious hope that Bay City-area cable television customers could tune into a true public-access television channel is burning once again.

The Community Media Center is a Public, Education, and Government Broadcast Television Facility that carries the signal for five local channels – Channel 18-Carroll Community College, Channel 19-the Public Access Channel, Channel 21-Board of Education Channel, Channel 23-Municipal Channel and Channel 24-the County Government Channel.

In September the center launched a new web site called www.ourcarroll.com. It’s a social network site, much like Facebook, but with the sole focus of Caroll county. In addition to creating your own profile, you can upload photos, videos and join local groups such as Carroll Cooks, Critter Chatter and the Carroll County History Project.

The purpose of the site is not to be a news resource, but a community resource. One that focuses on the topics and issues that are most important to those living in the county.

We’ve gone from a more global Carroll County view to a more local and specific area. Cynthia Piazza

Beyond the new social networking site, the Community Media Center is also looking to broaden it’s coverage of local municipality meetings at some of the larger unincorporated areas. This includes Finksburg, Eldersburg and others.

Creating a new community is not an easy task — we should know — so we applaud the efforts of the Community Center and hope that they have great success with their new site.

Source: Carroll County Times
Photo: Focus, courtesy of Dani Ihtatho