So here's my little drawing that explains what I learned today in preparation for the meeting on Friday and also just for the general understanding of public access tv.
1) Public access tv is very important to communities because it is the only venue in which any ordinary person can put their ideas/voice on tv and be heard. There really are no other public venues that provide people with the opportunities that public access tv does.
2) In the diagram I've drawn, the area boxed off in red is the public right-of-way area that exists within communities. This 18ft space is the 10 feet from the middle to the edge of the road, and the first 8 feet of your property. This is where utilities such as telephone and electrical poles go. Utilities have to pay fees to the local governments to use this public space. The same *should* be true for cable companies, as they put their cables in this space and use the public area much like a utility. However, instead of paying utility fees, they are supposed to pay a "franchise" fee to the local goverment in return for the use of this space.
3) Even though the cable companies- in our area here it's Charter- are supposed to pay the franchise fee to local governments they don't always do so. It's kind of a situation where the government won't get the money unless they fight for it, and when it comes to very small local goverments such as the townships around here, they sometimes are unsure of whether or not to demand this money from the big scary cable company. However, the current cap of what governments can recieve from the cable company is 5% of the revenue acquired from that community. Thinking about this, if you have a community of even 100 cable subscribers paying $40/month... the cable company is making 4000 a month, and 5% of that is 200/month. This comes to be $2400/year a township could be collecting from the cable company in return for the use of that public space- something that the public is entitled to, really.
4) Mac3TV, which is the Mid Michigan Area Cable Consortium (my internship) is made up of 11 townships and 3 counties. The job of Mac3TV is to provide the venue through which people of member communities can come, learn the equipment, make their own tv shows and have them air. We have 3 different locations, one in Clare, Mt. Pleasant and the Gratiot studio in Alma. Membership in this consortium is important to both Mac3TV and to the local communities, though there are still many who have not yet joined and really should for their own benefit. The second job the consortium has is to "fight" for the rights of member communities against the big bad cable company, providing information and assistance to each member community. In exchange for membership, Mac3TV is given 2 of the 5% franchise fee from each community that is a member. This money is used to fund the studios, providing equipment, staff (though many/most are part-time, volunteers, or in my case interns).
5) One reason some communities have not become members is they are reluctant to demand their 5% from the cable companies. The reasoning behind this is that they think the cable company may raise rates for their subscribers if they demand this fee, which is not true. The cable company has a prorated fee that does not vary from area to area depending on whether or not they have to pay the franchise fee there. So essentially, these areas are missing out on free money for their township, which is too bad because who couldn't use a little extra money? Plus, they would have more power if they were to join the consortium because there is always power in numbers, and their community members would have the added opportunity to use the tv media to express themselves.
6) The other thing that is required of cable companies for using that public space is to designate a public access channel. This means that if you have a cable company, you have to leave a space for the people to use your service for themselves. The thing with public access channels is that if you have enough programming throughout the day to fill 85% of the schedule, the cable company has to give you another channel to use as well, to make sure there is enough capacity to fill the demand for the service. Mac3TV is right at this point where they need another channel and so this is in discussion as per getting the 2nd channel.
Seems like this is a lot of stuff to have learned in one day; maybe it isn't but I felt like I'dalready learned a lot in such a short time. And this is only the most basic information even!
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