Council Bill 04-1411, Ensuring Public Access Television for the Citizens of Baltimore City.

Baltimore Grassroots Media Calls for New Cable Contract to Guarantee Funding for Public Access TV and for More Time for Public Input

BALTIMORE, MD (PRWEB) July 16, 2004 -- As the City conducts its first, and possibly only, public hearing tonight at 6:30 PM at 200 E. North Ave., on the re-negotiation of the 20-year-old agreement that allows Comcast Corporation to provide cable services, Baltimore Grassroots Media is demanding more time for assessment and public input in the process to get a better deal than last time.

The current contract, which expires December 4, 2004, did not provide adequate, continuing funding for public access, and the organization selected to run the public access channel, Baltimore Cable Access Corporation, eventually went under. The day-to-day operations of the station are now run by the Mayor's Office of Cable and Communications (MOCC) on an interim basis until a new cable franchise agreement is finalized and a new public access operator can be selected.

Baltimore Grassroots Media calls for a specific portion of the 5% of revenues that Comcast must pay to the City to be designated for public access TV. Currently this "cable franchise fee" goes to the Citys general fund. In addition, they want new funding from the cable company to be designated for equipment and facilities as is provided in cities with vibrant public access programs.

For example, Ann Arbor, Michigan, with only 35,000 subscribers, has a $1.2 million annual budget, which is divided equally among public, education, and government channels (PEG). This is funded entirely by the 5% cable franchise fee. In Grand Rapids, Michigan (198,000 pop), 40% of the franchise fee goes to the public access portion of PEG. In Massachusetts, state law ensures that cities direct all cable franchising fees to PEG.

At a recent panel discussion Marilyn Harris-Davis, director of the MOCC, said the Citys goal is to have a new contract by April 30. However, Bunnie Riedel, director of the Alliance for Community Media, maintained it was unusual for the process to be so rushed. She held out hope, though, that the process could still be done fairly and said, "If everyone were sitting at the table in October with a contract that would be signed in December you would be fine."

"If I were going to take on Baltimore as a client I would expect to spend a good year working on assessment and ascertainment." Riedel would use the time to audit the cable companys financial, technical performance and customer service records and conduct community meetings to come up with criteria for the new contract that would make greater demands on the cable company.

According to Riedel, "The cable operators make 40-50% net profit and the net is going up." Marion Ware, director of Carroll Community Television, points out, "[Politicians] seem always to be so concerned about the cable companies... and its ridiculous. Nobody makes that kind of profit."

Amanda Bowers of Baltimore Grassroots Media says, "We have an opportunity to create a truly democratic, local television outlet, but for this to happen the public must make its voices heard before it is too late."

MORE INFORMATION: www.baltimoregrassrootsmedia.org

Support our public access resolution

BGM introduced a resolution in support of public access TV in Baltimore at the June 7, 2003, City Council hearing. If you support BGM's mission, please go to http://cityservices.baltimorecity.gov/citycouncil/ to find out who your Council members are, then contact each of them and tell them to cosponsor
Council Bill 04-1411, Ensuring Public Access Television for the Citizens of Baltimore City.

Full text of the resolution:
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL 04-1411 (Resolution)
Introduced by: Councilmembers Abayomi, Holton, Welch, Young, Carter, Curran, Reisinger, Stukes, President Dixon
At the request of: Baltimore Grassroots Media
E-Mail: abowers@baltimoregrassrootsmedia.org
Introduced and read first time: June 7, 2004
Assigned to: Judiciary and Legislative Investigations Committee

REFERRED TO THE FOLLOWING AGENCIES: City Solicitor, Mayor's Office of Cable and Communications, Department of Finance

A RESOLUTION ENTITLED

A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning

Ensuring Public Access Television for the Citizens of Baltimore City
FOR the purpose of reaffirming the Baltimore City Council's commitment to public access television and democratic, grassroots, media access for all individuals living in Baltimore City by ensuring that public access television will be adequately provided for in the new cable television franchise agreement now being negotiated and by determining that provisions to guarantee ongoing financial support for public access television throughout the term that the agreement remains in effect will be included in the agreement to be signed in December 2004.

WHEREAS, The City Council of Baltimore recognizes the crucial role that media, especially televised media, plays in informing the public about culture, the arts, politics, social services, public health community issues, and a wide variety of other topics of interest to citizens; and

WHEREAS, The City Council also recognizes that open media access, particularly on a local, grassroots level, is necessary for citizens to exchange information and express their views, showcase their artistic talents, learn about social and cultural institutions, and be active in the political process; and

WHEREAS, The City Council is committed to creating and maintaining a truly democratic society where all views can be heard, and therefore is committed to fostering all forms of open media access in Baltimore City; and

WHEREAS, The City Council is aware that at an open public forum on March 31st, over 80 members of the public expressed concern over the state of public access to the media, urging that access be improved and made more readily available by the City and Comcast of Baltimore to the citizens of Baltimore.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That this Body reaffirms the Baltimore City Council=s commitment to public access television and democratic, grassroots media access for all individuals living in Baltimore City by ensuring that public access television will be adequately provided for in the new cable television franchise agreement now being negotiated and by determining that provisions to guarantee ongoing financial support for public access television throughout the term that the agreement remains in effect will be included in the agreement to be signed in December 2004.

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the City Council resolves that the following provisions will be included in the final franchise agreement between the City of Baltimore and the Comcast Corporation:

A continual revenue stream for public access, ideally fixed yearly percentage of the 5% franchise fee paid to the City of Baltimore by Comcast;
Funding for facilities and equipment from Comcast, separate from the fixed yearly percentage;
At least 12 analog channels and, when the conversion to digital services takes place, 10% of the digital bandwidth, to be divided equally among public access, educational access, and governmental access;
A fixed number of promotional spots for public access programs on the regular channels per year, as well as the ability to communicate with subscribers regarding public access programming at least 4 times per year;
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That to ensure that the organization that is ultimately chosen to operate public access be democratic in structure and committed to operating a widely-utilized facility that is open and accessible to individuals from all walks of life and with all levels of familiarity with television production and technology, the chosen operator will be:

An organization that is completely separate from both Baltimore City government and Comcast of Baltimore;
Representative of the wide diversity of individuals living in Baltimore City in terms of ethnicity, gender, and economic status;
Committed to providing training for producers of public access programming that is affordable and accessible to all those who wish to participate;
Located in a facility which is centrally located and easily accessible to multiple forms of public transportation.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That, in order for the public to gain the technological and cable industry knowledge necessary to be able to assure participation in all aspects of the public access spectrum of services, the negotiation process between the Mayor's Office of Cable and Communications and Comcast of Baltimore will be open to public scrutiny and more time will be allowed for public input and comments by:

holding at least1 public hearing before the final franchise agreement is reached;
including a community representative, chosen democratically at a public meeting, in all further negotiations between the City of Baltimore and Comcast of Baltimore regarding public access.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Mayor, the membership of Baltimore Grassroots Media, the Director of the Mayor's Office of Cable and Communications, the Vice President and General Manager of Comcast of Baltimore, and the Mayor's Legislative Liaison to the City Council.

Baltimore Grassroots Media
Amanda Bowers, 410-371-8218 or abowers@baltimoregrassrootsmedia.org