roundtable: ALLIANCE LOBBYING PACKET

roundtable: ALLIANCE LOBBYING PACKET

ALLIANCE LOBBYING PACKET

AllianceCM@aol.com
Sun, 29 Jan 1995 15:02:11 -0500 

Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 15:02:11 -0500
From: AllianceCM@aol.com
Message-Id: <950129150208_3843997@aol.com>
To: alliance-nw@isu.edu, media-forum@actwin.com, roundtable@cni.org
Subject: ALLIANCE LOBBYING PACKET


Here's a copy of the lobbying materials the Alliance for Community 
Media National Office has developed to advance our issues with key 
members of the 104th Congress.

For more information, contact government relations coordinator Jeff 
Hops at (202) 393-2650.

_________________________________________________

ALLIANCE FOR COMMUNITY MEDIA

The Alliance for Community Media is committed to assuring
everyone's access to electronic media. The Alliance
accomplishes this by creating public education, advancing
a positive legislative and regulatory environment,
building coalitions, and supporting local organizing. 

A nonprofit, national membership organization founded in
1976, the Alliance represents the interests of over 950
public, educational and governmental ("PEG") access
organizations throughout the country.  It also represents
the interests of local religious, community, charitable
and other groups in the country who utilize PEG access
centers and facilities to speak to their memberships and
their larger communities.  Organizational and individual
dues-paying members total over 1,300.

Churches, public schools, Little Leagues, YMCAs, PTAs,
Seniors groups, and American Legion chapters, to name but
a few, all utilize the low-cost services of PEG centers
to participate in an ever-growing "electronic town hall." 
Through these centers, people from all walks of life
learn to communicate using the tools of television.  The
programs they make are seen by cable subscribers in their
community.

The Alliance for Community Media provides critical
support services for community television centers and for
the primarily volunteer staff that keep these outposts of
electronic democracy in operation.  The Alliance's
activities in providing technical assistance, political
advocacy, and opportunities to share expertise promote
the broader goals of supporting our nation's communities
and families, and promoting effective communication
through community uses of media.

The Alliance:

* Provides technical assistance in the development and
operation of PEG access channels and community TV
organizations, primarily through its annual international
conference and trade show (average attendance of 700 to
1,000), about ten regional conferences per year, the bi-
monthly newsletter The Medium, and various manuals;

* Promotes political, regulatory and industry support for
PEG access, primarily through government relations
contract services, public and press relations, the
Alliance Public Policy Network and Council, fax broadcast
services, and internet communication services;

* Facilitates networking and education among people and
organizations involved with community media, primarily
through its national and regional conventions, various
special interest groups (such as for trainers, volunteer
producers, and government access centers), and
directories (such as its community media Yellow Pages and
its 960-listing Community Media Resource Directory);

* Supports community television advocates with materials
and information on community programming and national
policy issues, primarily through its bi-monthly journal
Community Media Review (CMR); and

* Monitors developments in telecommunications
applications and advocates for the public's access to
emerging media systems.

The Alliance's public policy program is dedicated to
preserving and promoting legislation and regulation which
supports PEG access and programming.  In the 104th
Congress, the Alliance will be working closely with
religious, charitable and community organizations to
protect the current cable access environment; to ensure
that new federal legislation respects local property
rights to public rights of way and eliminates special
privileges or fee waivers to any class of companies which
develop new  telecommunications technologies, such as
television by wire; and to ensure that the emerging
National Information Infrastructure provides space which
will allow America's rich collection of local and
community organizations to flourish into the 21st
century.
_________________________________________________

QUICK FACTS ON PUBLIC ACCESS LEGISLATION

* Public, Educational, and Governmental ("PEG") Access
television channels on cable TV serve a wide range of
community organizations, including churches, synagogues,
Lions and Rotary Clubs, local political party
organizations, high schools and colleges.

* PEG access centers exist because local franchise
authorities often provide for capacity, services,
facilities, and equipment as partial compensation for the
cable companies' use of state and local rights-of-way.  

* PEG access is threatened because new transmission
technologies, such as video dialtone ("VDT") and Direct
Broadcast Satellite ("DBS"), bypass local franchise
authorities entirely.  The FCC does not require these
competitors to cable to provide PEG access.

* Through PEG access centers, thousands of community
groups and over one million individuals produce more than
20,000 hours of new local programming each week -- more
than all programs produced by NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and PBS
combined.

* In the 103rd Congress, the Alliance worked for
legislation to allow state and local governments to
exercise control over alternative ways of transmitting
television signals, and to require PEG access as a way of
compensating cities and towns for use of public rights of
way.

* S. 2195, introduced by Senator Inouye (D-HI), would
have allowed a capacity reservation of up to twenty
percent on telecommunications networks generally, in
compensation for use of public rights of way.  Hearings
were held on this bill last summer in connection with the
larger telecommunications reform effort.  Portions of
this bill were included in an initial draft of S. 1822.

* However, as reported by the Senate Commerce Committee,
S. 1822 reduced the ceiling on the reserved capacity to
five percent, and eliminated state, local, and tribal
governmental access to this reserved capacity.

* Costs imposed on video systems to open up additional
public access channel capacity are virtually non-existent
-- approximately $783 annually per channel.1  For many
cable systems, the incremental costs per subscriber are
below one penny per month.

* The Alliance proposes that telecommunications
legislation in this Congress specify that all providers
of video programming provide capacity for PEG access
video programming, and services, facilities, and
equipment for production of programs, when appropriate
franchise authorities require it.

* State, local and tribal governments would have access
to the reserved capacity for purposes of transmitting
video programming.  Schools, libraries, and public
television stations would also be eligible to make use of
the reserved capacity.

* The Alliance endorses legislation which will assure the
future of PEG access in a competitive telecommunications
marketplace.  Such access is easily affordable by a
profitable industry.
_________________________________________________

TELECOMMUNICATIONS LEGISLATIVE GOALS

The Alliance for Community Media endorses
telecommunications reforms which would:

PROTECT FAIR COMPETITION.  

Competition promotes efficiency and produces more varied
choices for consumers.  Moreover, converging
communications technologies have blurred many of the
distinctions which once existed between types of
telecommunications services, and between the entities
that provide them.  Data, voice, and video are now all
being transmitted over telephone lines, through the
airwaves, via coaxial cable, and on fiber-optic networks. 
Telephone companies are providing video services, cable
operators are providing telephone services, electric
companies are providing electronic databases, and so on.
It is essential for telecommunications reform legislation
to recognize that all like services must be regulated in
a consistent manner, regardless of actual or constructive
ownership.  

Specifically, all providers of television-by-wire should
obtain franchises from the states and/or cities in which
they do business, regardless of whether the service
provider calls itself a cable operator, a telephone
company, an electric company, an electronic publisher, or
some other entity.

REQUIRE FAIR COMPENSATION FOR USE OF PUBLIC RIGHTS OF WAY.  

The Alliance believes that the streets, highways and
roads of the nation are the property of the residents of
local communities.  City, state and county governments
act as trustees of these assets for their residents and
are entitled to charge fees for their use.  Local
authorities should have the authority to offer leases or
easements for fair market value, where appropriate. 

Telecommunications legislation should recognize the right
of local and state franchising authorities, including
state Public Utilities Commissions, to impose fees,
taxes, or rents for use of public rights of way.  The
legislation should make clear that in-kind payments of
PEG access (valued on an incremental-cost basis) are an
appropriate payment for such rights.  The equipment,
services and facilities necessary to utilize PEG access
effectively should also be considered an appropriate part
of a service-provider's compensation package to the local
government.

PERMIT LOCAL DETERMINATION OF HOW COMMUNITIES ARE TO BE
SERVED.  

As the federal government continues to consider
governmental responsibilities that can be successfully
devolved to state and local governments, PEG access
provides an exemplary model of how services essential to
the public welfare can be provided without any taxpayer
expense or taxpayer involvement.  Decisions about PEG
access are made entirely at the local level, as a private
matter between a local franchising authority and the
cable system operator.  The Alliance believes that this
simple and effective regulatory model should be applied
to all entities providing direct video services,
regardless of federal regulatory status.  Devolving
decisions and control of PEG access to states and local
governments will ensure that programming created for PEG
access reflects local interests and meets local needs. 

Telecommunications reform language should expressly state
that all video providers are subject to the jurisdiction
of local franchising authorities, and that these
authorities are authorized to impose such fees, rents,
taxes, or other conditions as may be appropriate for
"public necessity and convenience."

PROVIDE TRUE UNIVERSAL SERVICE.  Universal service which
guarantees every American the ability to connect to a
telecommunications line is extremely important.  But
physical connection to a network by itself is not enough. 
True "universal service" recognizes that, in an age of
increasing interactivity, Americans have the right to
create and transmit information, not just passively
receive programming.  Our telecommunications policy must
recognize that local groups -- churches, charities,
YMCAs, Little Leagues, secondary schools, and civic
organizations -- have a right to be heard. 

The telecommunications reform bill must create a
mechanism which will provide, not only channel capacity,
but the equipment, services and facilities which permit
individuals and community groups to use that capacity. 
Although the Alliance prefers a mandate, it will support
the concept of allowing local or state franchise
authorities to make the decision to request PEG access
capacity, equipment, services and facilities from
franchisees.

PROMOTE COMMUNITY SUPPORT AND DEMOCRATIC DISCOURSE. PEG
access programming supporting adult education promotes a
better trained work force and higher levels of economic
productivity.  PEG access can turn all Americans into
"information 'haves." 

The Alliance supports legislation which ensures that
educational and community institutions are physically and
financially able to regularly make video contacts with
their members, their students, and their larger
communities.
_________________________________________________

EXCERPTS FROM REP. GINGRICH ADDRESS AT ALLIANCE
CONFERENCE

Alliance for Community Media/NFLCP
1990 Convention and Trade Show

Keynote Address Excerpt:
Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

"...you are literally at the cutting edge of history,
that you are creating the opportunity, you are the
pioneers as surely as the Wright Brothers or Edison, you
are creating the opportunities, not just in politics, but
across the entire spectrum of the human experience, for
people to communicate, to collaborate and talk with
themselves, to have a level of business, maybe not quite
as sophisticated as Monday Night Football, maybe not
quite as extraordinary as the best Olympic coverage, but
in level of humanness that is not attainable by a purely
commercial, centrally-controlled system, and a level of
openness that is not obtainable by a bureaucratically
dominated public system. 

"In that sense, we are in this together, because it's
going to take all of our creativity to make the 21st
century work.  We live in a planet which needs more
creativity, more interaction, more opportunity for this
kind of dialogue.  In that sense, I think you are at the
cutting edge."

For a complete transcipt of Rep. Gingrich's remarks,
contact the Alliance for Community Media at (202) 393-
2650 or AllianceCM @ aol.com.
_________________________________________________

ALLIANCE PUBLIC POLICY EFFORTS

This information, on behalf of all PEG access, is made
possible by the far-sighted and committed members of the
Alliance Public Policy Council, Alliance Public Policy
Network, and individual donors. See the January/February
issue of CMR for a list of the members as of the end of
December 1994. Public Policy Council members ($2,500)
receive detailed legislative and litigative information,
Public Policy Network members ($500) receive bi-weekly
fax broadcast "Public Policy Updates," Alliance donors of
$100 or more receive an Alliance lapel pin -- and all
receive the satisfaction of knowing that they have done
their part to help preserve and advance PEG access.
_________________________________________________

National Office
Alliance for Community Media
666 11th Street, NW, Suite 806
Washington, DC 20001-4542

Voice:	(202) 393-2650
Fax:		(202) 393-2653
E-mail:	AllianceCM @ aol.com

"Ensuring everyone's access to electronic media
since 1976."

Barry Forbes, Executive Director

"Do what's right. Do it right. Do it right now."

_________________________________________________

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