MassAccess is rallying its members to push one of several bills in state legislature. S.1857 – An Act Supporting Community Access Television would have all PEG channels carried in both standard and high definition (HD), as well as have programs listed in electronic programming guides (EPG) as broadcast channel programs are listed. They are also working on S.2267 – An Act Relative to Peg Access and Cable Related Funds, to preserve funding derived from franchise fees. MassAccess held its one-day Spring Conference on May 4 and holds a monthly member call-in on first Fridays.
Vermont Access Network (VAN) held its annual meeting at Greater Northshire Access Television (GNAT), also on May 4. The morning business meeting included an update on legal work related to the Comcast v Vermont lawsuit, approval of the VAN annual budget, Board of Directors elections, Vermont Media Exchange report and elections, statewide Access Management Organization (AMO) status update and vendor introductions. Sixty-nine members and representatives from six vendors attended (Access A/V, Audio Video Corporation, Barbizon Light of NE, Cablecast Community Media, Unique Media Systems, TelVue). The afternoon included vendor presentations and educational workshops on OTT and live streaming topics. In another afternoon session, VAN discussed collaborative marketing efforts and formed a marketing committee to address marketing and outreach initiatives.
New Hampshire Coalition for Community Media (NHCCM) – offers workshops as their membership meetings. They are trying to trace an unsettling rumor that reduced PEG fees in upcoming franchise renewals. Their website is undergoing renovation, as of this writing.
Community Television Association of Maine (CTAM) held their Annual Meeting on April 28. They had been struggling to push state legislation and apparently facing opposition from industry by way of a key committee chair.
Connecticut Alliance for Community Media (CTacm) will renew their Meet & Greet get-togethers at Skye Cable XIII in Waterbury this coming June 8. There are no legislative threats looming; nothing more can be swept into the budget deficits. But since the only reliable operational funds for the official Community Access Providers is the per subscriber fee, everyone the effect of cable-cutting among subscribers. The governmental and educational channels that depend on local budgets are feeling the pinch of the slow-recovering state economy.
New York’s ACMNY upstate members have made themselves more familiar to state legislators, working toward a bill drafted to address their funding problem “in the most unobtrusive way possible.” This bill would call for a tax credit to satellite, internet and (possibly) cable providers for voluntary contributions to a community media capital fund (along the lines of Connecticut’s strangled PEGPETIA program). They also hope for an update of the national “toolkit” for start-up PEGs. A member meeting was scheduled for May 30.
Remember if you ever need to find anything about your state or others, we have the state chapter websites linked here and the state representatives listed with our other Directors.