Verizon likely to push for NYS video franchise.

With Verizon’s push for national video franchising stalled in Washington—the telephone giant will likely push for statewide franchises in New York State, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. Changes in the franchising system could impact public access TV—and strip the public of this valuable democratic and social-justice media forum. NYS public access TV advocates—and the media justice community—must rally to oppose changes. <!--break--> <img class="dada-image-center" src="http://rochester.indymedia.org/sites/default/files/migrate_dada/PTH-social-justice_web.jpg"><br> <img src="http://rochester.indymedia.org/sites/default/files/migrate_dada/19723_willa_powell.jpg" align="left"> <font face="PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>&nbsp;</b>From a small office off the Bronx’s Fordham Road, an organization founded and led by homeless New Yorkers runs a small media empire. Well actually, “empire” is a bit of an exaggeration. But the members of Picture the Homeless do regularly create and air their own TV shows on Time Warner and RCN cable in Manhattan—and by doing so reach 650,000 homes in one of the largest and most lucrative media arenas in the world. To do this, the group doesn’t pay a penny—as the video equipment and channel-time they use is free. <br /><br />Picture the Homeless is one among the hundreds of community organizations around the state using public access TV channels to inject the public discourse with local perspectives on pressing issues of the day. With the corporate media habitually failing to make credible local programming, public access TV offers audiences genuinely local TV content.<br /><br />But public access TV is under threat—for months a phone company backed end to local video franchising has been debated in Washington. Local franchises are the mechanism that provides funding and channel space for public access TV—now the pressure is on to replace these local franchises with one national franchise.<br /><br />With changes in franchise rules </span><span style="font-family: times;">stalled in Washington, Verizon is likely to soon push for statewide franchises in the profitable eastern states. Statewide franchises could be equally (or more) damaging to public access TV than the proposed federal legislation. Top Verizon lobbyist Tom Tauke says, the company will </span><span style="font-family: arial;">“focus on obtaining statewide agreements in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania” (Bloomberg News—Oct 5th, 2006)</span><span style="font-family: times;"> if there is no movement in Washington.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br />There are believed to be roughly 100 public, educational and governmental (PEG) TV stations in New York—stations such as Rochester Community TV, Schenectady’s SACC-TV, and stations in each of New York City’s five boroughs. These centers are natural rallying-points for organizing popular opposition to legislative changes. In June, Penfield Community TV in Munroe County hosted the first statewide meeting of the recently formed NY chapter of the Alliance For Community Media—thereby jumpstarting coalition building among the state’s access TV centers. But there is a lot of work still to be done in organizing the access community—some local centers are not members of the Alliance For Community Media, and others are so under-resourced they may not be able to take on advocacy efforts.<br /><br />Public access TV is an important venue for addressing social-justice issues—and for community building and empowerment through the provision of media communication tools to marginal or disempowered communities. “Without public access TV we wouldn’t be able to bring the issues our organization faces to the public’s attention”, says Rice of Picture the Homeless. He adds, because of public access TV the organization has been able to focus public scrutiny on the deplorable conditions inside the NYC’s homeless Emergency Assistance Unit and to counter the NYPD’s illegal fingerprinting of homeless New Yorkers.<br /><br />It’s important social-justice and alternative-media advocates rally in support of public access TV. And ensure that Albany—or Washington—does not dismantle it. Advocates should look seriously at expanding public access TV into eligible communities around the state—communities where it has never been introduced. With cable TV morphing into digital broadband service (alongside data and voice communication), the future for public access TV, community Internet, Internet radio, and other democratically accessible on-line media forms is intertwined.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: times;">In May, NY State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky introduced a statewide video franchising bill. Although there has been no movement on Brodsky’s Assembly bill 11529—damaging statewide franchises have been adopted in California, Texas, New Jersey, Virginia and Indiana. In Michigan, statewide franchising was stopped when state legislators received hundreds of letters from municipal leaders and the public; and in Pennsylvania a vote on the statewide “Cable Choice and Competition Act” has been averted—largely because of municipal opposition and the bill’s failure to provide service “build-out” in rural communities.<br /><br />Lyell Davies<br />Saveaccess.org</span></font>

<p>With Verizon’s push for national video franchising stalled in Washington—the telephone giant will likely push for statewide franchises in New York State, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. Changes in the franchising system could impact public access TV—and strip the public of this valuable democratic and social-justice media forum. NYS public access TV advocates—and the media justice community—must rally to oppose changes.</p> <!--break--><p><img class="dada-image-center" src="http://rochester.indymedia.org/sites/default/files/migrate_dada/PTH-social-justice_web.jpg" /><br /><br /> <img src="http://rochester.indymedia.org/sites/default/files/migrate_dada/19723_willa_powell.jpg" align="left" /><br /> <font face="PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b> </b>From a small office off the Bronx’s<br /> Fordham Road, an organization founded and led by homeless New Yorkers<br /> runs a small media empire. Well actually, “empire” is a bit of an<br /> exaggeration. But the members of Picture the Homeless do regularly<br /> create and air their own TV shows on Time Warner and RCN cable in<br /> Manhattan—and by doing so reach 650,000 homes in one of the largest and<br /> most lucrative media arenas in the world. To do this, the group doesn’t<br /> pay a penny—as the video equipment and channel-time they use is free. </span></font></p> <p>Picture<br /> the Homeless is one among the hundreds of community organizations<br /> around the state using public access TV channels to inject the public<br /> discourse with local perspectives on pressing issues of the day. With<br /> the corporate media habitually failing to make credible local<br /> programming, public access TV offers audiences genuinely local TV<br /> content.</p> <p>But public access TV is under threat—for months a phone<br /> company backed end to local video franchising has been debated in<br /> Washington. Local franchises are the mechanism that provides funding<br /> and channel space for public access TV—now the pressure is on to<br /> replace these local franchises with one national franchise.</p> <p>With changes in franchise rules <span style="font-family: times;">stalled<br /> in Washington, Verizon is likely to soon push for statewide franchises<br /> in the profitable eastern states. Statewide franchises could be equally<br /> (or more) damaging to public access TV than the proposed federal<br /> legislation. Top Verizon lobbyist Tom Tauke says, the company will </span><span style="font-family: arial;">“focus on obtaining statewide agreements in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania” (Bloomberg News—Oct 5th, 2006)</span><span style="font-family: times;"> if there is no movement in Washington.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p> <p>There<br /> are believed to be roughly 100 public, educational and governmental<br /> (PEG) TV stations in New York—stations such as Rochester Community TV,<br /> Schenectady’s SACC-TV, and stations in each of New York City’s five<br /> boroughs. These centers are natural rallying-points for organizing<br /> popular opposition to legislative changes. In June, Penfield Community<br /> TV in Munroe County hosted the first statewide meeting of the recently<br /> formed NY chapter of the Alliance For Community Media—thereby<br /> jumpstarting coalition building among the state’s access TV centers.<br /> But there is a lot of work still to be done in organizing the access<br /> community—some local centers are not members of the Alliance For<br /> Community Media, and others are so under-resourced they may not be able<br /> to take on advocacy efforts.</p> <p>Public access TV is an important<br /> venue for addressing social-justice issues—and for community building<br /> and empowerment through the provision of media communication tools to<br /> marginal or disempowered communities. “Without public access TV we<br /> wouldn’t be able to bring the issues our organization faces to the<br /> public’s attention”, says Rice of Picture the Homeless. He adds,<br /> because of public access TV the organization has been able to focus<br /> public scrutiny on the deplorable conditions inside the NYC’s homeless<br /> Emergency Assistance Unit and to counter the NYPD’s illegal<br /> fingerprinting of homeless New Yorkers.</p> <p>It’s important<br /> social-justice and alternative-media advocates rally in support of<br /> public access TV. And ensure that Albany—or Washington—does not<br /> dismantle it. Advocates should look seriously at expanding public<br /> access TV into eligible communities around the state—communities where<br /> it has never been introduced. With cable TV morphing into digital<br /> broadband service (alongside data and voice communication), the future<br /> for public access TV, community Internet, Internet radio, and other<br /> democratically accessible on-line media forms is intertwined.</p> <p><span style="font-family: times;">In<br /> May, NY State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky introduced a statewide video<br /> franchising bill. Although there has been no movement on Brodsky’s<br /> Assembly bill 11529—damaging statewide franchises have been adopted in<br /> California, Texas, New Jersey, Virginia and Indiana. In Michigan,<br /> statewide franchising was stopped when state legislators received<br /> hundreds of letters from municipal leaders and the public; and in<br /> Pennsylvania a vote on the statewide “Cable Choice and Competition Act”<br /> has been averted—largely because of municipal opposition and the bill’s<br /> failure to provide service “build-out” in rural communities.</span></p> <p>Lyell Davies<br />Saveaccess.org</p>