FCC commissioner urges educational broadcasters to counter ‘bigness’ trend

At the Alliance for Community Media convention on July 13, FCC commissioner Gloria Tristani discussed the benefits of public broadcasters and community channels working together. The Alliance works toward ensuring access for public education broadcasters. It’s vision is similar to the one being advocated in Canada by Vision TV president and CEO Bill Roberts, who is urging public broadcasters and not-for-profit channels to band together to create a more powerful voice in Canada’s broadcasting system. Highlights from Tristani’s speech are reprinted below. Today I would like to discuss your corner of the video universe. The work done by public, educational, and governmental access (PEG) providers has always been valuable. At its most basic, PEG access empowers individuals and groups to use the media to educate and enrich their communities ...Now, with the growing consolidation of the media, the role of PEG access is more important than ever. ...On the one hand, cable industry consolidation is increasing the leverage of the largest cable operators in the franchising process... That could make it harder for franchising authorities to secure the best deals for PEG access. But hopefully PEG access entities, working with the local franchising authorities, will turn this consolidation into an opportunity to grow PEG access. At a time where local regulators may fear the growing concentration of cable industry power, PEG access providers must remind everyone of their inherent localism. As local control of cable systems becomes a distant memory, PEG access providers must capitalize on the concerns raised by consolidation. Ask your franchising authorities to put a stake in the ground. Encourage them to do what they can to counter the trend toward bigness and sameness by supporting greater resources for PEG access channels. And just when consolidation may weaken the hand of franchising authorities, the importance of getting good agreements has never been greater. This is because of rapid advances in cable technology. A prime example is interactive television. It has the potential to provide exciting new services and features for millions of cable subscribers. It could make television more enjoyable, informative, and educational. But it also could help tilt the playing field against PEG access channels. Channels overlaid with interactive capability could gain an artificial advantage for viewership over "plain old" video channels.Another issue with interactive television is the importance of PEG channels receiving accurate listings in the cable operator’s electronic program guide... Cable operators must make every effort to bring interactive functionality to PEG channels as well as commercial channels. A second area where new cable technology heralds both promise and pitfalls is digital cable channels. The ability to transmit video in digital format is an exciting technical advance. As with interactive television, digital cable could marginalize PEG channels. Sitting among 30 or 40 cable channels, three or four PEG channels are a reasonable component of cable service and can be found by people looking for them as well as by channel surfers. Sitting among hundreds of channels, three or four PEG channels could easily get lost in the shuffle. To help avoid this, cable operators should use this increased digital capacity to renew their commitment to their communities. The Vermont Public Utility Commission has taken a significant step in this area by requiring its cable operators to set aside ten percent of their broadband capacity for PEG access services. I am not an expert in cable franchising but the decision strikes me as good public policy. It helps ensure that PEG access programmers benefit from significant advances in cable technology while leaving the lion’s share of channels under the cable operator’s control. I hope that, at a minimum, digital cable technology will encourage cable operators to allocate more channels to PEG access.

FCC commissioner urges educational broadcasters to counter ‘bigness’ trend

Broadcast | August 2, 2001

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us