Genachowski Answers PEG Concerns

Last year, a number of Members of Congress wrote Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski to urging prompt attention to a Petition for Declaratory Ruling regarding the treatment of local public, educational, and governmental access (PEG) channels on the AT&T U-verse cable TV system as well as another petition, a group of Michigan cities led by Dearborn, asking for relief concerning Comcast's plan to digitize PEG channels, requiring basic service subscribers to pay extra just to continue to receive PEG channels.

On January 4, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski sent a reply saying 1) each Comcast cable television system in Michigan generally will continue to deliver PEG channels in analog format on the basic service tier until all channels on the basic tier are delivered in digital format, and 2) the Commission's Media Bureau continues its review of the record with respect to the remaining Petitions that are pending before the Commission. The Petitions, he said, raise complex and important issues requiring careful analysis of the law governing the carriage of PEG programming by multichannel video programming distribution systems. Chairman Genachowski has directed the Bureau to complete its review of the record and to develop recommendations on how to proceed expeditiously.