Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV)

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Community leaders concerned about AT&T's attempt to defy state law

Congressional Hearing highlights Public Access

HISTORY OF PEG LEGISLATION

IL Supports
Public Access

The FCC Endangers
Public Access

MORE INFORMATION

Press coverage of the issues

Assessing the Damage:
Survey shows that state video franchise laws bring no rate relief while harming public benefits

State video franchise laws have swept the nation in the past few years, including passage of the Cable and Video Competition Law of 2007 in Illinois. The change from regulation by local governments to state law has resulted in harm to public benefits in many states around the nation.

Illinois law protects public benefits like public, educational and government (PEG) access. But that law must be upheld and all state franchise holders held accountable if Illinois residents are to enjoy the same access to local information that exists today on PEG channels. For more on what's happening in Illinois, go to keepusconnected.org.

In May, 2008, the Alliance for Community Media (ACM) initiated an online survey to look at early results from state video franchise law. The results show significant harm to public benefits in states across the country, even in the early stages of implementation of these new laws. Members of ACM and the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) participated in the survey.

For a summary of the findings, click here.

The Alliance for Community Media is a national membership organization representing more than 3,000 PEG access centers across the nation. Local PEG programmers produce 20,000 hours of new programs per week, and serve more than 250,000 organizations annually through the efforts of an estimated 1.2 million volunteers.

Community leaders concerned about AT&T's attempt to defy state law

Illinois nonprofits, municipalities, lawmakers and public access television stations are protesting the low standard of delivery for public, educational and government (PEG) channels on AT&T’s U-verse cable system. The substandard treatment of PEG channels raises serious questions about AT&T’s compliance with Illinois' Cable and Video Competition Law of 2007.

“The Illinois cable and video franchise bill we passed last year called for the same quality of service for the people’s channels as for commercial channels,” said Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston), “and that’s what we expect.”

AT&T’s cable service directly defies

Illinois law by segregating PEG channels – including local art, education and civic programs – from all other channels on its system. AT&T’s system dumps hundreds of community channels into a generic “Channel 99” – stripping away individual channel identities and removing those local channels from the standard lineup. This standard of delivery for PEG programming is astonishingly low, especially in an age of high definition television and high-speed Internet.

“AT&T wants you to believe that Channel 99 is a tremendous benefit for the community, but it is really a separate and unequal treatment of PEG,” said Don Rose, Wheaton City Manager. “Our residents need to get local information like emergency alerts, health updates and civic information without jumping through the kind of hoops AT&T has put in the way.”

AT&T is the first company to be granted a statewide video franchise and is already setting a bad precedent for future compliance. AT&T’s refusal to comply with the law is a betrayal of the lawmakers who intended to protect PEG channels when they passed the new franchising law.

Want to learn more?

Read the recent Daily Herald article, “Suburbanites upset by AT&T’s U-Verse”.
Read the recent Southtown Star Column, "Are you addicted to public access?"
Watch the video demonstrating AT&T’s slow, cumbersome treatment of PEG.
Learn more about deficits in AT&T’s plan for PEG carriage

Congressional Hearing highlights PEG Access
Subcommittee members call industry to task

On January 29, 2008, the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing of its Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet entitled, "Public Education, and Governmental (PEG) Services in the digital TV age."

Testifying at the hearing were the Mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, Annie Folger of Midpeninsula Community Media Center in Palo Alto, California, and representatives of Comcast and AT&T.

Annie Folger itemized the harms that PEG centers are encountering from bad state laws and other problems.

Rep. Charles Gonzales, a Democrat from AT&T's hometown of San Antonio, Texas, said, “The real question comes down to is this a technological challenge or is it really a business decision?”

Annie Folger strongly countered that AT&T has made the business decision to install PEG at a quality standard that is sub par and not equivalent to commercial channels. Folger’s testimony reinforces that point.

For testimony on PEG from the Telecom Subcommittee hearing, click here.

Annie Folger of Palo Alto, California testifies on the harmful consequences of bad state law affecting PEG.

Illinois Supports Public Access

On Saturday, June 30, 2007, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich approved SB 678, signing the telecommunications bill into law as Public Act 95-0009, The Cable and Video Competition Law of 2007.

The original telecommunications bill (formerly HB 1500 and SB 678) threatened public, educational and government (PEG) access TV centers like CAN TV. The revised bill (PA 95-0009) does no harm to PEG access TV centers.

Click here to view Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan Satter's speech about PA 95-0009.

For details and documents on PA 95-0009
(formerly HB1500 and SB678)

Click here to view CAN TV's Executive Director, Barbara Popovic's interview with Susan Satter.

The FCC Endangers Public Access

In March of 2007, the FCC passed an order that is harmful to PEG Access by restricting its funding and channel capacity.

On Halloween, the FCC extended its attack on PEG by allowing cable companies to get out of obligations made with local governments for support of this important resource. CAN TV is supporting an effort to fight these regressive measures in court through Alliance for Communications Democracy.

For more read FCC Creates a Climate of Chaos over Video Franchising.

For more on the FCC and the fight to save public access click here.

Chairman of the FCC, Kevin Martin.