Help defeat “The Idaho Video Service Act” « Treasure Valley Community Television
Oppose the Video Service Act 2012
Greetings TVCTV Producers and Supporters ~ We have an urgent Call to Action to protect public access television in our community. The Video Service Act will soon come before the House Business Committee. This bill would:
CenturyLink is pushing the Video Service Act in Idaho. The “Act” will cost cities and towns in Idaho a lot of money and it will wipe out Public, Educational and Government (PEG) access television. Here are some of the most damaging provisions of this Act.
• The definition of gross revenue will cost cities and towns 20% to 25% in lost revenue. It removes what is commonly found in local cable franchises, such as advertising and home shopping and fee-on-fee. It subjects calculations to GAAP. GAAP is subjective based on what the cable operators’ accountants say should be included as part of the formula.
• It provides that municipalities share PEG channels. Because the bill says that channels will be shared to a single video hub; that could mean that the entire state of Idaho will only have 2 PEG channels to be shared by all the cities and towns.
• The Act wipes out all PEG access television funding, further burdening cities and towns which will have to take that support from their general fund.
• The Act has no build-out provisions, meaning CenturyLink will only “cherry-pick” wealthier neighborhoods and leave poorer neighborhoods without true competition.
Here are some facts about statewide video franchising:
• CenturyLink claims if it doesn’t get a statewide certificate it won’t be able to build in the state. That is not true. CenturyLink is gladly building in Colorado and they are going city by city to get franchises.
• Cable rates have gone up, not down, in states with statewide franchising. In Salina, Kansas, Cox Communications has hiked basic cable rates 151% since 2007! The FCC released a report last year to show that cable rates go up 6% a year in states with local franchising and states with statewide franchising. It doesn’t make a difference.
• There has been very little actual competition for most states that have passed statewide franchising. The new entrants such as AT&T and Verizon invested in wealthier neighborhoods and have now stopped building. In seven years since the first statewide franchising law passed in 2005, AT&T only has 2 million customers, even though they pass tens of millions of homes.
• Almost one hundred PEG access channels have gone dark in California since statewide franchising and currently another 500 are at risk in nine states.Statewide franchising laws have failed local communities, left customers vulnerable and have cost municipalities millions of dollars in lost revenue. It’s time to support PEG channels and oppose the Video Service Act.
Contact your Idaho House of Representatives about this proposed legislation.
House Business Committee Members are:
Representative Max Black (R) – Chair
Representative Frank Henderson (R) – Vice Chair
Representative Gary Collins (R)
Representative Carlos Bilbao (R)
Representative Marge Chadderdon (R)
Representative Brent Crane (R)
Representative Jim Patrick (R)
Representative Clifford Bayer (R)
Representative Joe Palmer (R)
Representative Jeff Thompson (R)
Representative Vito Barbieri (R)
Representative Reed DeMordaunt (R)
Representative Jim Guthrie (R)
Representative Gayle Batt (R)
Representative Elaine Smith (D)
Representative John Rusche (D)
Representative Brian Cronin (D)
Contact them through the Idaho Legislature web site here:
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