ACM New York recently shared something fairly unexpected for some states: a public services regulator not coming down on the side of a cable provider. A post on their Facebook page leads to a July 27, 2018 story in the Times Union newsite: “PSC orders Charter cable giant out of NY.” This was also reported on […]
You are browsing archives for
Tag: policy
Vermont Saga, continued
In a previous post, we summarized the year-long efforts of VAN to include better conditions for access media in Comcast’s license renewal. In January, they were awarded many of their requests by the state’s Public Service Board. PEG people everywhere rejoiced because this created a precedent that others could cite. Indeed, MassAccess did just that […]
The New York State of Public Access Medi...
A message from Marc Gronich, a member of the ACMNY board: There has been much public backlash in the town of Bethlehem, Albany County, regarding the library board wanting to cut the cord on the town community media station and let the town pocket the $686,000 they receive each year from the cable franchise fee. […]
Why he went to Minneapolis
Marc Gronich is Director of Legislative Affairs for the state affiliate, ACM New York and Vice-Chairman of the Oversight Board for Channel Albany in the state capital. With decades of experience as a community access intern and producer, he went to the Rivers to Cross conference to seek the policy and technological tools to help […]
Meanwhile in Massachusetts…
The Legislative Approach Eric Dresser’s May report to ACM-NE began with Bill H.2682, “basically aimed at helping to require cable television operators provide PEG access feeds for both SD & HD, while also enabling Electronic Programming Guide so that subscribers may record, select and view PEG access channels in the same manner as local broadcast […]
Vermont Access Network in 2017
Catching up on some exciting episodes… But before we get into this saga, some regulatory basics for the non-Vermonters: Franchise agreements–or Certificates of Public Good (CPG)–are settled at state level by the VT regulatory agency, the Public Service Board. Comcast is the main cable provider for most of the state, with one area primarily served […]
ACMNY goes to Albany
This is adapted from a report by Tony Arrien, chair of the New York state chapter: ACM New York had a “Community Media Advocacy Day” in Albany back on March 29, 2017. In addition to most of our ACMNY Board members, more than a dozen Community Media representatives from all over the state went to the capital for […]
Connecting in Connecticut – April 2016
Connecticut ACM has managed to hold two face-to-face meetings in the past 7 months. In September, Citizens TV in New Haven hosted several PEG people for lunch and a tour of their facility (recently converted from a veterinary hospital). Over lunch they discussed their mutual problem of insufficient funding and how to approach the legislature. Trying to recover the PEGPETIA fund […]
April in New York State
(adapted from Maryann Arrien’s report to ACM-NE) ACM New York’s six current board members had monthly meetings in February and March. We have started the work of our Public Policy Committee & Public Relations Committee and discussed plans for a video to be produced at a PEG center in either Westchester or NY City to further […]
VAN of Vermont – April 2016 report
(adapted from Patrick Cody’s report to ACM-NE) Comcast Certificate of Public Good The biggest piece of work undertaken by the Vermont Access Network (VAN) in the past few months is the review of Comcast’s Certificate of Public Good (CPG) renewal. In Vermont, a CPG is the franchise license that a utility or telecom company must […]