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Action Alert on Cable TV Access
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Date: Mon, 8 Apr 1996 23:37:48 -0700
From: akrause@Sunnyside.COM (Audrie Krause)
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-announce@cpsr.org"
CPSR Members and Supporters,
The Alliance for Community Media has initiated a grassroots campaign to ensure continued public access to local cable television facilities. This access is threatened by provisions of the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996.
Please send the letter that follows to your representatives in Congress. Enclose a copy of the second letter and ask that your representatives send the second letter to members of the Federal Communications Commission.
For further information about this campaign, contact Jeff Hops of the Alliance for Community Media, by phone at (202) 393-2650, or by email at AllianceCM@aol.com.
SEND THIS LETTER TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS:
Dear Representative/ Senator_______________
Thank you for your work on the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Your continued interest in this issue is much appreciated.
I am associated with a local public, educational and governmental ("PEG") access center in [ your community]. As you may know, PEG channels on cable television serve elementary and secondary schools, churches, synagogues, Little Leagues, Lions, Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs, local political party organizations, universities and libraries.
PEG access centers exist because local franchise authorities often provide for such capacity, services, facilities and equipment as partial compensation for cable companies' use of state and local rights of way. Through PEG access centers, thousands of community groups and over one million individuals produce more than 20,000 hours of new local programming each week -- more than all programs produced by NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS and Fox combined. PEG access is popular -- and it works to inform, educate, serve and promote charitable services, distance learning programs for our children and local economic development.
The Federal Communications Commission is currently considering how best to regulate "Open Video Systems" ("OVS"), created by Section 302 of the Telecommunications Act. These provisions allow telephone companies to provide a platform for both their own video offerings and those of unrelated third-parties, subject to minimal legal restrictions.
Your intervention is required to ensure that Section 302 meets the needs of our children, our schools, our churches and synagogues, and our community institutions. Without your help, OVS will only end up as a way for telephone and cable companies to avoid their responsibilities to the communities in which they do business. Without proper regulation, OVS will lead to significantly less access to video platforms for unaffiliated and non-profit television programmers and producers.
We urge you to send the enclosed letter to the members of the FCC.
The letter asks the Commission to protect the future of OVS by:
* requiring platform operators to provide and/or support local PEG access facilities fully and in good faith;* ensuring that access to video platforms by third parties is readily available, by exercising reasonable supervision over rate and regulatory structures governing access to the platform; and* following the clear intent of Congress in creating OVS as a means of encouraging telephone companies to enter the video services market, by prohibiting cable operators who are already in the video market from converting to the OVS regulatory system.
The Telecommunications Act could potentially open up new vistas for meaningful electronic expression by schools, nonprofits, churches, community support organizations, and governmental bodies and agencies, if the Commission adheres to Congress' intent. Please help us to ensure that Congress' will is carried out by the FCC.
Sincerely,
_______________________ [Your name & home address]
ENCLOSE THE FOLLOWING LETTER WITH THE LETTER TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS:
Dear Commissioner:
As you may know, the Cable Services Bureau of the Commission is currently in the process of promulgating rules implementing the "Open Video Systems" provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, P.L. 104-104, (302 (1996). The statute requires the Commission to promulgate any rules under this section (including any reconsideration) no later than August 8, 1996.
I believe that the Commission should act with circumspection in promulgating rules for OVS. Congress' intention in passing this provision was to allow voices that currently have limited or no access to a video platform, whether broadcast, cable, DBS, or "wireless cable," to create and show television programming subject to terms, rates and conditions that are fair and reasonable. These voices include those of elementary and secondary schools, churches and synagogues, charitable institutions, local governing bodies and state and local agencies.
Constituents of mine who are associated with public, educational and governmental ("PEG") access centers in my district have contacted me with their concerns that OVS regulations not violate the spirit of the OVS provision. They have asked me to give your most favorable consideration to regulations that:
With regard to PEG access on OVS systems, produce a result that at least equals the level of access, services, facilities, equipment and support available to PEG access centers on cable systems;
Ensure that access to video platforms by programmers unaffiliated with the OVS platform operator is readily available, by exercising the Commission's statutory authority to impose some level of rate and regulatory structuring of platform access; and,
Follow the clear intent of Congress in creating OVS as a means of encouraging telephone companies to enter the video services market, by prohibiting cable operators who are already competing in the video market from converting to the OVS regulatory system.
Like you, I am optimistic that the 1996 Telecommunications Act will potentially open exciting new vistas for meaningful electron expression by schools, nonprofits, churches, community support organizations, and governmental bodies and agencies. I believe, however, that this will only happen if the Commission heeds Congress' intent. I therefore urge you to give special attention to the regulatory comments of the Alliance for Community Media, Consumer Federation of America, People for the American Way et al. in this rulemaking, and to approve only those regulations which guarantee meaningful opportunities for access to the OVS platform by all Americans.
Sincerely,
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Member of Congress
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Audrie Krause CPSR Executive Director PO Box 717 Palo Alto, CA 94302 Phone: (415) 322-3778 * Fax: (415) 322-4748 E-mail: akrause@cpsr.org Web Page: http://www.cpsr.org/home.html ```
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