For Public, education, and government (PEG) access channels, what's chiefly at stake is funding and signal quality. Without funding and a broadcast quality signal, your ability to use PEG channels to speak to your community, hear discussions of local issues, and see our local government at work is endangered.
What's at stake if the CAP Act is passed and why we support this legislation:
1. The laws and regulations governing cable would apply to all land-line video providers. Since AT&T is competing head-to-head with cable, it should be regulated in the same way. It should abide by the same customer service and PEG requirements.
2. PEG channels would be required to be carried in the same manner as local broadcast channels. Charter would have to return the PEG channels to places on the line-up near the local broadcast stations and AT&T would have to give PEG channels real channels on the line-up, not websites buried under a menu system on channel 99.
3. PEG fees could be used to support any PEG purpose – like staff, not just the purchase of capital equipment. PEG stations that depend entirely on PEG fees would not have to worry about closing down because their negotiated contracts with cable companies, allowing them to use PEG fees for staff, would not be voided by recently passed state laws and decisions at the FCC.
4. The FCC would be directed to study how state video franchise laws (like Act 42) have affected PEG. New state laws are resulting in widespread elimination of PEG channels. The FCC needs to look into this. But, if PEG is not protected while the FCC studies the matter, PEG channels will continue to shut down and most will not reopen. Tammy’s bill would keep PEG supported during the period of the study. In Wisconsin, this would mean that the end of PEG fees now scheduled for January 1, 2011, could be delayed until the FCC report is finished.
What's at stake if the Consumer Cable Repair Bill for Wisconsin is passed and why we support this legislation:
Act 42 fundamentals still in place
Act 42 made substantial changes to cable television franchising, moving it from a local negotiated process to a standardized state procedure. In the past, municipalities were able to require video providers to serve whole communities. Now video providers may decide which portions of a community to serve. The driving force behind these changes was the belief that it would speed up the development of competition and that competition would lower rates.
Representative Hebl's bill leaves this new structure in place and instead focuses on improving conditions for community public, education, and government access channels, consumer protection, and broadband deployment.
Improvements for PEG access television
Rep. Hebl's repair bill reverses the dire financial picture for PEG stations. Responsibility for transmitting PEG channels is placed squarely on the shoulders of video providers and cities are given the option of receiving a subscriber-based source of revenue (a PEG fee) to support the creation of local programming. The bill also requires video providers to place local PEG channels within reach of every subscriber, saving many the cost of renting a converter box and putting PEG channels in a more advantageous position to earn revenue.
Transmission. Each video provider would be required to pay for the transmission equipment needed to carry PEG. This change (a return to pre-Act 42 common practice) would do two things: it would stop small town PEG stations from closing down because they cannot afford this equipment and it would increase the number of PEG stations seen on AT&T's system, since to date, only a few have been able to afford the equipment.
Subscriber-based revenue. PEG fees will end on January 1, 2011, leaving thirty PEG access stations with a hole in their budget ranging from 7% to 80%. Rep. Hebl's bill would continue PEG fees after that date under a new system that would give municipalities the option of assessing up to a 1% fee on provider video gross revenues to support PEG channels.
For many cable subscribers in the state, this provision may mean the difference between having a local channel or not. WAPC believes cable subscribers want to see local programming and would like the option to pay for it rather than be reliant on municipal funds for its continuance. The League of Wisconsin Municipalities and the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities support this provision because it is an optional and flexible PEG fee that can be set to suit the needs and values of each community.
Keeping PEG channels within reach of subscribers. On AT&T's U-Verse video system, only PEG stations are buried under a series of menus. Only highly motivated local television viewers are wading through more than a minute of menus to find out what is playing on their PEG channel. Charter Communications digitized PEG channels last year, putting them out of reach for any basic or expanded basic customers that did not have a new digital television set or could not afford to pay extra monthly fees for digital television service -- as many as 55% of its subscribers. Only a strong campaign by WAPC motivated the company to leave the PEG channels in the analog format for these customers. Then Charter moved them to locations high on the line-up that had not been used in the past because of interference problems with FM radio signals.
Rep. Hebl's bill places PEG stations back where every subscriber can find them - on the lowest cost tier of service near other channels on that tier. The bill also requires PEG channels to occupy "channels" not websites.
Improved consumer protection
Rep. Hebl continues to keep consumers in mind by requiring all video providers to abide by federal customer service regulations and increasing fees on video service providers so the state can afford to enforce them. The bill also moves oversight from the Department of Financial Institutions, which has not been a good fit, to the Public Service Commission, which is accustomed to dealing with lines in the right-of-way and has the technical expertise to handle interference problems. The bill empowers municipalities to enforce state-level consumer protections and restores the ability of the prevailing party in a dispute to collect costs and reasonable attorney's fees.
Encouraging broadband development
Rep. Hebl's bill also takes a strong stand on broadband development, encouraging our largest telecommunications providers to serve all our communities. Specifically, should a large telecommunications provider not offer 90% of the households in its footprint the option of taking video service within 18 months of passage of the bill, the provider must pay $20 million into a state fund set aside for broadband development.