The Future of Public Access TV in the Fresno Area

The Future of Public Access TV in the Fresno Area
By Mike Rhodes
September 1, 2006

Public, Education, and Government (PEG) access TV is one step closer to becoming a reality in the Fresno area. AB 2987 passed both the State Assembly and Senate this week, setting the stage for legislation that establishes a statewide franchise that will regulate cable and other video service providers, such as Verison and AT&T. The statewide franchise will provide funding for PEG access in communities like Fresno and Clovis who have been unsuccessful in their attempts to renegotiate an agreement with their local cable provider.

While Comcast and the County of Fresno did reach an agreement earlier this year, that franchise only affects about 13,000 subscribers. The vast majority of cable subscribers in this area (about 90,000) have been operating under an extension of the old franchise agreement that leaves this area without a Public Access channel or Community Media Center. That is about to change.

The legislation that passed in Sacramento designates 1 - 3% of gross revenue to be used for PEG purposes. Fresno and Clovis will receive about $650,000 a year. This money will be used for equipment, staff, and a Community Media Center to operate a PEG facility. Comcast, our current video service provider, will provide at least one channel each for Public, Education, and Government programing. The Community Media Center will provide training in video production techniques and will make the equipment (video cameras, digital editing equipment, studios, etc) available for all interested community members and organizations. Programs can be pre-recorded or produced live. The Education channel will be used by area schools and the Government channel will be used to broadcast the Board of Supervisor’s, City Council, and other important government meetings.

The cities of Fresno and Clovis are still working with Comcast in an attempt to implement a new franchise agreement before the January 1, 2008 date, when the State franchise would begin. Local media democracy activists, who have been working on this issue for the last five years, would like to start PEG in this area as soon as possible. Randy VanDalsen, vice president of the Buske group, said “Fresno may be able to reach a settlement with Comcast during franchise renewal negotiations regarding noncompliance issues that could yield a one-time lump sum payment, a portion of which could be for initial PEG support.” The Buske Group is working as a consultant for the cities of Fresno and Clovis in the negotiations with Comcast.

Sue Buske, president of the Buske Group, told me that negotiations with cable providers has been very difficult ever since the legislation started moving through the Assembly and Senate in Sacramento. Buske said that before the legislation passed the cable companies didn’t seem very motivated to negotiate. They wanted to find out what was going to happen in Sacramento before making a deal. But, the cable operators were not idle observers as the legislation was being discussed. Comcast, for example, during April, May and June of this year spent over $3 million to lobby this legislation. AT&T and their affiliates spent $17,977,977 lobbying on AB 2987.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that “the California Cable & Telecommunications Association spent $196,080 in the same three-month period for a range of lobbying activities that included meals with lawmakers. Dennis Mangers, president of the association, said he has had to resort to using the help of contract lobbyists for the first time in his 25 years of representing the cable industry in Sacramento. ‘I don't ever recall this kind of money being spent, this much drama, this much public interest,’ he said.”

Randy Reed, president of the recently formed nonprofit Community Media Access Collaborative (CMAC) in Fresno, is working hard to get that organization recognized as the group that will oversee PEG in this area. Reed expects the CMAC to coordinate programing on the PEG channels and run the Community Media Center (CMC). The CMC will probably be located at CSUF and be affiliated with the Mass Communications department. Comcast has already agreed to link CSUF with the fiber optic connection needed to originate programing from that location. This was agreed to in the Fresno County/Comcast franchise agreement.

The speed and the pace at which PEG access channels come to Fresno will depend on negotiations between Comcast and the City of Fresno. If a breakthrough occurs, we could be watching locally originated PEG channels in 6 - 12 months. If Fresno, as Randy VanDalsen suggests, is aggressive and pushes hard for a good deal, including compensation for several areas where Comcast is in noncompliance of the current contract, this community could have a well funded CMC and PEG access project. If the city does not vigorously negotiate this agreement, we could be looking at January of 2008 before the money from the State franchise agreement starts to fund PEG locally.

One community that recently came to an agreement with Comcast is Marin County. According to an August 15, 2006 article on Indymedia < see: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/08/15/18297703.php > it took them six years to negotiate a franchise agreement that included the following:

* $3 million: For the construction, remodeling, equipment, and transitional start-up needs for an independently run, non-profit Marin Community Media Center (MCMC or MC2) to operate three PEG channels. The new MCMC will administer all PEG programs, store, maintain and allocate use of equipment, train personnel for all channels, schedule programming and operate the channels.

* Three PEG Channels: One channel each for Public, Education and Government use. Currently, Marin has just one public access channel (CH26), which only offers 5 hours per day of public content, and is run (poorly) by Comcast, not the public. Currently, Marin has no Education nor Government channels. The option for three more PEG channels will be triggered when Comcast moves from analog to digital transmission, and certain PEG milestones are reached.

* $1 million: For a high-speed fiber-optic Institutional Network or "I-Net" that will interconnect 31 Marin public agencies, schools and libraries capable of TV broadcasts of city council meetings and emergency alerts.

An argument could be made that Fresno/Clovis, which has more than 100,000 Comcast cable subscribers, should be able to negotiate a deal at least as good as Marin, which has only 62,000 subscribers.

For more information about the Marin agreement, see:
http://www.mediaactionmarin.org/ .

For more information about AB 2987, see:
http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_2951-3000/ab_2987_bill_20060828_amended_sen.pdf .

For information about The Buske Group, see:
http://www.BuskeGroup.com .

For more background on the work to bring PEG access to this community, see: http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home/peg2006.htm