American Community Television

Saying that the Comcast-Time Warner transfers and spin-offs puts Public, Educational and Government (PEG) access television at risk, American Community Television (ACT), filed comments in the Federal Communications Commission proceeding to review the transactions.

“We risk having to deal with a giant monopoly that will run rough-shod over PEG channels and local communities,” said John Rocco, ACT President. “Comcast won’t just be handing over huge parts of the upper Midwest to Charter and then walking away, Comcast will own a substantial portion of the “New Charter” and the spin-off, Midwest Cable.”

The comments included an overview of PEG setbacks that have occurred over the last ten years, to include: loss of funding; slamming PEG channels into the upper 900’s; charging the municipality for the transmission of the channels; PEG access closures in various states; hard ball negotiating tactics on behalf of the cable operators; lack of a programming guide description and the inability to deliver PEG on a Video on Demand platform or to record PEG programming via a DVR.

In the comments, ACT said, “We request that the FCC protect PEG access television by rejecting the proposed transaction as not being in the public interest or conditioning the proposed transactions on curing the various problems we outline in these comments with significant conditions to protect PEG and prevent further consolidation of the traditional cable industry.” “There is no doubt that these transactions, this shuffling of the deck, threatens PEG access television,” said Rocco, “As they grow bigger they will push back on their public interest obligations, especially PEG and frankly, there won’t be a lot that local communities can do to stop it. We want to see some guarantees that PEG will be protected in this environment.”

Simultaneous to projecting itself as a corporation that has the public’s best interest at heart in order to push through approval of the merger of Comcast with Time Warner, Comcast is waging war on Public, Educational and Government (PEG) access television in America’s heartland.

On February 13, 2014, Comcast announced its merger with Time Warner, assuring regulators and the public that ultimately they would deliver a new and improved product that benefits consumers while not harming competition and consumer choices. In that same announcement, Comcast states “In every transaction, we have over-delivered on our public interest commitments.”

Comcast states: “PEG channels would be protected from migration to digital in the acquired systems that are not yet all-digital (unless otherwise agreed by the LFA), and would be protected from material degradation.”

“Making a concession to a digital transition of PEG channels, does us no good if those channels are stripped of their funding or reduced in number,” said Rocco. “As usual, Comcast shows open hostility toward PEG access television and shows its true colors when it comes to meeting the public interest.”

There are over 40 PEG access operations in the state of Minnesota. American Community Television is monitoring the situation in Minnesota with interest.