FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 31 October 2007
Contact: Lee Perkins, Director, Cheshire TV (603) 283-6621
PRESS CONFERENCE: Heberdon Hall, Winter St, Keene, NH on Thursday, November 1, 8:30a
COMMUNITY PUBLIC ACCESS, FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS
THREATENED IN MONADNOCK REGION
(Keene, NH) Residents of this picture-perfect New England city best known for the annual Pumpkin Festival may lose their local community access channel, Cheshire TV, if mogul Time Warner Cable does not honor and amend its franchise agreement with the City of Keene.
Most pressing is that Cheshire TV will run out of money in about 30 days. The 2007 Annual Report provided by Cheshire TV details market value of community education and programming services totaling $1,464,200 leveraged from a start-up budget of $188,000. According to Lee Perkins, Cheshire TV’s Executive Director, “First year capital acquisition and startup was significant, but represents a capital investment that will last 3-5 years. The contract we have with the City of Keene clearly stated that our mission was to commence cablecasting of local, original, replayed and/or other PEG Access programming no later than June 1, 2006. We took that obligation seriously, and the community has enjoyed the benefits of our efforts to leverage $188,000 into a $1.4 million accomplishment. This kind of launch is unheard of in the public access arena.”
Time Warner’s non-compliance includes lack of proper reporting to the City by Time Warner, lack of point of origination access installation at City Hall and until recently the library, and the negotiation of an unrealistic franchise fee at contract inception. Perkins is confused by the City’s seeming inability to enforce the contract with Time Warner. “We don’t understand why the City of Keene has not used its rights to force Time Warner to be in compliance with the contract, originally signed in May 2003. The single most requested program is live City government meetings and the failure of Time Warner to install that connection has made it impossible to do that. Who knows what damage that one choice by Time Warner has done to potential fundraising? What hurts us most is the extremely low negotiated franchise fee of .75%. We’ve not been able to find any other franchise fee this low. It is estimated that local cable subscribers provide a monthly income of $500,000 to the cable giant. In other markets similar to Keene, cable access fees average between 3.5% – 5%. It’s as though they deliberately wanted us to fail and now we’re being punished for succeeding beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.”
Cheshire TV’s predicament mirrors the ongoing federal legislative battle to ensure that public access television remains a right of all citizens. At this time two Senate bills, S1504 and S1349 and one House Bill, HR 3146 are being promoted by Verizon, another communications conglomerate. If successful, this legislation would place all public access TV under a single federal contract with no obligation to provide community access. Under present law, communities are entitled to public access television paid for by the cable TV station, with the contract being under local control.
Perkins is mystified by the current state of affairs. “The City retains the right of local control of franchises, but won’t exercise it. They should be aggressively protecting citizens. Regardless, first amendment rights to free speech are guaranteed. It’s clearly a David and Goliath scenario. It’s unsettling to think that a company like Time Warner could do such damage to free speech, in New Hampshire of all places. Cheshire TV has proven itself beyond question. We made it clear from the start that .75% was not enough money to operate, we let them know last May that we would run out of money and time somewhere between October 1 and November 30. All our members and Board of Directors ask is that City officials enforce the Time Warner contract and correct the franchise fee inadequacies and other non-compliance issues that we’ve been burdened with since day one. All we’re asking for is what Time Warner gives to the communities in most of the markets they serve around the country. The citizens and subscribers of Keene deserve that.”
