Texas School Asks FCC to Block Time Warner Cable PEG Move

The McAllen (TX) School District has asked the Federal Communications Commission to block Time Warner Cable from migrating Public, Education and Government cable access channels from analog to digital there starting Oct. 1.

The McAllen district, which describes itself as a heavy user of educational channel access, wants the FCC to block the move to digital there and elsewhere until it acts on other petitions, which the FCC has had under consideration since February 2009, seeking a declaratory ruling that migrating the channels to a digital tier is discrimination. "Had the Commission issued the requested rulings, it would have prevented incumbent cable operators from discriminating against PEG channels or exercising editorial control over the PEG channel capacity. But, some 19 months later, the Commission has not yet issued a decision in this docket," the petition states.