from San Antonio for Public Access:
"With the looming expiration of Time Warner Cable's franchise agreement with the city and a new law requiring state-issued franchise agreements, the city is facing the possibility of contracting production services for public, education and government access channels at the first of the year.
Senate Bill 5, passed in the Legislature's second special session this year, replaces local cable franchise agreements with state-issued deals between cable and video providers and the Public Utility Commission.
This means the providers are no longer responsible for supplying production services for public, education and government access channels and are now responsible only for transmitting and distributing the signals for those three channels.
Time Warner has managed the public access channel and has provided limited production assistance for the education channel and partial production assistance for the government channel, which airs City Council meetings and other public programming. The company's franchise agreement with the city expires Dec. 31.
In the short term, the city could discontinue the channels, maintain the same level of programming through an agreement with Time Warner or a production company, or modify the level of programming with the use of a production company...
...Councilmen Kevin Wolff and Richard Perez said temporarily discontinuing the channels may be necessary to ensure that the city makes the right decision, given that the council must decide on something by Dec. 15, its last meeting of the year.
The city could then lose the channels and have to reapply for them, without the guarantee they would be reinstated on the basic tier of channels, Gorzell said.
Perez said he wanted to focus on strengthening the government access channel, where residents can watch city department programs, "Our Part of Town" talent shows and the council members' district shows..."
Translation: due to a senate bill, we are in danger of losing our public access channel. This will be decided at the city council meeting on December 15th.
How you can help (also from www.sa4pa.com):
The last day of production support for all channel 20 broadcasts may very well be on December 31, 2005.
How to make a difference:
1. Contact your District Rep today! Information is provided on this site.
2. Don't let channel 20 "go dark!" Urge your District Rep to avoid disruption of programming and vote in favor of retaining Time Warner's current level of service in 2006; until the council decides on what to do about public access.
3. Tell everyone that supports your programming about this issue and request that they do the same right away.
4. Leave a message in the Guest Book on this site to share your thoughts and voice your opinion.
5. Attend the City Council Meeting on December 15, 2005. It may be the last public forum on this matter for discussion.
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