New Public Media

The first time I ever set foot inside a “public access” TV station was in 1997. I wanted to make a short documentary and found someone at Austin’s community television studio to help me.

It was such a novel concept to be able to borrow cameras, audio gear and editing equipment to tell a story.

A few years later, I joined and became a producer at what was then called the Austin Community Access Center. I worked with my wife to film reaction in the streets to the 2000 presidential election and captured the first opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We also documented environmental matters and told stories about urban development in Austin’s sensitive Barton Springs watershed.

Being able to produce short video segments or hour-long programs and air them on cable channels for all to see was a continual source of joy and amazement.

Until 2005, most things in the world of community television were unchanged.

Ground Zero for Deregulation

Enter AT&T, which rolled into Austin, the state capital, with its army of lobbyists.

The San Antonio-based telco giant had a mission: become a video provider across the state, without having to bargain with local municipalities like the cable companies had done for decades.

To do so, the company successfully lobbied to create a statewide franchise system – bypassing the tradition of closely working with local communities to address their information needs.

Texas became ground zero for a wave of telecommunication deregulation that has since swept the country. Although AT&T and other phone companies spearheaded this movement, the cable industry quickly saw an advantage to ending their longstanding municipal arrangements as well.

There are now 20 states where local municipal control over cable and video franchises have been stripped away.

Shut Down in San Antonio

In Texas, the legislature gave the state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) the power to dole out video and cable franchises. The problem is that for Texas, as elsewhere, these local agreements between cities and cable providers have been the primary source of operating funds for community television.

Under the old franchise agreements, municipalities were able to negotiate with video providers in order to secure funding for the operation of Public, Educational and Government access channels. But as these agreements expire, and the cable and phone companies eagerly take up the rubber-stamp agreements available under the amended law, the funding for these stations is disappearing.

Just three months after Texas’ new telecommunications law went into effect, San Antonio became its first casualty. The moment the franchise agreement between San Antonio and Time Warner expired, the cable company pulled the plug on the public access channel and studio that had been operating out of the Time Warner facility. Under the new regulatory regime in Texas, none of the monies that Time Warner continued to pay San Antonio could be used to actually operate community television.

The problem stems from language in the federal Cable Act which restricts how PEG stations can spend their money. Though the amended state law provides that 1 percent of the cable or video providers’ revenue goes to municipalities for PEG, it turns out that this funding can only be used for capital expenses, not for operations.

The public channel in San Antonio went dark for many months. After a hue and cry from local producers, a significantly scaled down community television facility was launched in a fourth floor office of a San Antonio city building, with one staff person managing it as well as the government channel. Suffice it to say, it’s never been the same.

Is Austin Next?

In 2006, I started to work at Austin’s community television station. Now managed by channelAustin, we’ve been keenly aware that what happened 70 miles to the south in San Antonio could happen here when the city’s agreement with Time Warner ends.

So far, we’ve been fortunate. One beneficial aspect of the 2005 Texas legislation is that existing local agreements remain in force until they contractually expire. But that date for us – Aug. 12, 2011 – now looms on the horizon.

Today, still under the local cable franchise system, channelAustin receives about 85 percent of its annual budget from a “cable access fund” derived from Time Warner Cable subscriber fees.

But as soon as the cable giant gets a statewide franchise certificate from the PUC, it could spell the end for channelAustin and, with it, the ability of Austin’s citizenry to have affordable access to video production training and the means to distribute their content on the cable channels.

After 2011, Time Warner’s obligation to pay into the earmarked cable access fund, as per the existing local franchise, will disappear. Then, under a statewide franchise Time Warner will pay Austin 1% of revenues that the city can use for PEG. That money, in theory, should be used to support channelAustin’s operations.

But again, because of the Cable Act restriction, the 1% can only be used for "capital" purposes, such as new Sony HDV cameras or Apple computer hardware and software. The funds cannot be used for the day-to-day operations to keep channelAustin's doors open.

channelAustin’s Executive Director Linda Litowsky notes the irony that, barring any change, after 2011 there would be plenty of capital funds available to construct a million-dollar addition to our facility, but no money to staff it.

Congress Can Save Community TV

The combined impact of the new statewide franchising system and the restrictive parameters of federal law are a poison pill for community television and community media centers here in Texas, while similar disastrous scenarios are played out in many other states.

But there’s hope.

A new federal bill introduced in Congress in October by Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the Community Access Preservation Act (HR 3745) would solve this problem. If enacted into law, this bill will remove these unfair federal restrictions on the monies that the city receives from local cable providers.

The bill has several other key provisions, including a directive to the FCC to examine the impact of state telecommunications deregulation and a measure that would end the discriminatory practice of relocating PEG channels in the upper digital tier.

Most important for us, it would save channelAustin. If the Community Access Preservation Act passes in 2010, we will have no worries in 2011.

On Nov. 19, the Austin City Council passed a resolution supporting this federal legislation and called on the city's congressional delegation to take action. Austin Rep. Lloyd Doggett became a co-sponsor of the bill after hearing channelAustin's concerns. We have also held meetings with aides of Austin’s other representatives.

This momentum generated here has spilled over into other communities. The city government of San Antonio is planning to make passage of the Community Access Preservation Act one of its legislative priorities for 2010.

HR 3745 now sits in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. If the bill passes, not only will it keep channelAustin afloat, it may breathe new life into San Antonio and help save community media across the nation.

This is a guest post by Stefan Wray, who is channelAustin’s Communications Director and Technical Lead for the Open Media Project. He sits on the Austin Public Access Future Funding Task Force, is part of the Alliance for Community Media’s Public Policy Work Group, manages the Save Texas Access blog, and is working with others in Texas to promote the Community Access Preservation Act.