Low Power FM Info

.

Back

Search This Site The Web  for

.

Subject: [reclaim the media ] Comcast Attacks Public Access TV in Chicago

Critics say firm is cutting airtime

By John Keilman, Chicago Tribune, Aug. 2

Even by the humble standards of public-access television, West Chicago's
Channel 17 is a skeletal operation, but at least its rent has been free.
The succession of cable companies serving the town let the channel operate
in their building without charge and supplied a $5,000 subsidy.

But in mid-December, a few weeks after Philadelphia-based Comcast took
over the town's cable system, Channel 17 learned the deal was over.

City officials "said they just had notice that Comcast wasn't going to
fund it anymore," said Bob Martin, president of the foundation that runs
Channel 17. "They were going to get us out of that facility because they
wanted it, and we had better start looking for a new home."

Public, educational and governmental access--known by the acronym PEG--was
one of the original selling points for cable television, bringing
everything from Zoning Board hearings to do-it-yourself talk shows to
local screens. But critics say Comcast, which became the nation's largest
cable company last year when it acquired AT&T Broadband, is turning its
back on that commitment.

Since snapping up AT&T's 1.6 million Chicago-area customers in November,
Comcast has stopped producing local programming in Elgin. It ended a
$100,000 annual payment for public access in Wheaton. And it is trying to
negate a contractual agreement under which it pays the $7,700 monthly rent
for Naperville's public-access studio, saying it is not required under
federal law.

Other complaints have popped up from California to Massachusetts, leading
to accusations that Comcast is trying to end public access altogether.

Bunnie Riedel, executive director of the PEG advocacy group Alliance for
Community Media, said there are about 5,000 access channels nationwide,
whic h equal "a lot of revenue lost for cable companies. They could be
throwing in at least three or four more home-shopping channels on each
system" if they reclaimed PEG channels, she said.

Comcast officials said suspicions are groundless and the disputes are part
of contract negotiations or long-running legal quarrels in a tiny portion
of Comcast's 4,500 cable systems nationwide.

"At its finest, we realize that PEG programming can produce a competitive
advantage for us, because satellite-dish systems can't produce that," said
Jon Kreucher, a Comcast vice president of regulatory affairs. "We haven't
adopted a companywide policy to do away with PEG. It wouldn't be in our
interest, and we couldn't do it under federal law."

Public access required

Cable companies are legally obligated to provide public-access channels if
a town asks for them, and many do. But the things necessary to create
programming for those channels--equipment, studio space and staff--are
negotiated by cable providers and the towns they serve.

As those contracts expire, some say Comcast, known as a fearsome
negotiator in the business world, is taking a hard line on those expenses.

Marin County, Calif., had reached an initial agreement on PEG funding with
AT&T Broadband last year when Comcast took over. Martin Nichols, head of
Marin Telecommunications Agency, said the company quickly backpedaled on
the $12.8 million arrangement.

"We went from having a deal Comcast said they would honor to one that
would provide about 16 cents on the dollar," he said. "We've rejected
that, and so we're in limbo."

A Comcast spokesman declined to comment, saying the company had pledged to
keep negotiations private.

The entire cable industry is under investor pressure to recoup billions of
dollars sunk into system upgrades in the 1990s, said Anne Hoag, a cable
expert at Pennsylvania State University. Comcast has a particularly large
burden: It took on $25 billion in debt when it acquired AT&T Broadband, a
notoriously poor financial performer.

Jeff Chester of the Washington-based Center for Digital Democracy, an
advocacy group for cable consumers and programmers, said that has led to
Comcast "squeezing communities across the country" to save money.

"It's in the process of playing hardball with cities in terms of
[contract] renewal, with public access, threatening to cut budgets,
threatening to close channels," he said.

Kreucher said PEG cutbacks are a pittance compared with Comcast's recent
sale of home-shopping channel QVC for $8 billion and ongoing debt
restructuring. Any public-access savings would be "so insignificant that
there's no way the company would ever look at that as an opportunity," he
said.

Costs drove Elgin moves

But Comcast officials acknowledge money was behind the loss of local shows
in one Chicago suburb.

Elgin's contract is vague when it comes to PEG, saying only that the cable
company must provide "local origination programming." Cable providers
through the years took an expansive view of that phrase, assigning
employees to tape City Council meetings, produce a mayoral show and put
together a week-in-review program for a local channel.

But in February, a few months after Comcast took over from AT&T, the
company ended the Elgin programming, leaving the local channel to carry
shows highlighting news, sports and politics from across the Chicago
region, as well as a program touting Comcast's pay-per-view offerings.

"It becomes difficult to program for the needs of 50,000 when you have 1.6
million viewers," said Comcast spokeswoman Patricia Andrews-Keenan. "You
have to be as broad-based as possible so you're appealing to a broad range
of your viewers. It becomes cost-prohibitive to do those kind of [local]
shows on a weekly, monthly basis."

Elgin has begun taping its own City Council meetings, which still run on
the local channel, and is considering paying private companies to create
other programming. Assistant City Manager Sean Stegall said that even
though Elgin still is negotiating a final agreement with Comcast, it has
no leverage to force a public-access showdown.

"A municipality not renewing a contract and having it upheld is beyond
rare," he said. "The statutes are set up clearly in [the industry's]
favor."

Lawsuit filed

But one city is taking on Comcast over PEG issues. Officials in San Jose,
Calif., have big plans for public access, from adding new channels to
expanding and updating the local studio. When they judged Comcast's offer
to be woefully inadequate, they voted to preliminarily deny renewal of the
company's contract.

Comcast sued, saying the city overstepped its legal bounds, and the matter
is before a federal judge. The company declined comment, but San Jose
spokesman Tom Manheim said it's only fair for Comcast to pay for the
"electronic soapbox" provided by public access.

"Comcast is a company that will make, in our estimate, gross revenues of
over $1.5 billion over 10 years" in San Jose, Manheim said. "They are
making a profit by using the public's right of way. We think they offer a
good service. We also think the residents of San Jose deserve something in
return."

Not every town has battled Comcast over public access. In Skokie, the
company paid for a $200,000 upgrade to the town's studio. Officials in
places such as Chicago, Oak Park and Addison, where contracts still are in
force, say they have seen no hint of reduced support.

Comcast officials say the PEG arguments will be ironed out before the
final deals are signed and dismiss complaints as negotiation-minded
posturing. They also note that local governments in West Chicago and
Wheaton slashed their own spending on public access this year.

"We're happy to work with cities to air more local programming, but we
expect them to play a role and be responsible as well," Kreucher said. "We
need them to understand that they're partnering with us to create a
high-quality channel."

In West Chicago, Comcast hasn't yet forced Channel 17 to leave its
building despite its desire to reclaim the space, and producers still are
turning out new shows. But Laura Bahrenburg, who showcases dining and area
events on "Food, Fun and Whatever," nonetheless worries the end could be
near.

"We'll know shortly if we'll have a studio, equipment, be able to get our
programs out," she said. "If we cannot, I think it'll be a sad thing on
our part. I think the community would still like to have those things when
they pay for cable TV."