Comcast Corporation needs to do more to preserve and promote public access television stations on its cable networks.
That was the message from attendees of a public hearing on whether the state should grant the media company a new license to operate.
The Public Service Board, the state’s utility regulatory body, is taking testimony on whether to extend the license for the company, which provides cable, internet and telephone service. Comcast inherited its current license, a certificate of public good, when it purchased Adelphia Cable in 2006.
If granted, the new certificate would allow Comcast to operate through 2027. In return for permission to bury cable in public rights-of-way, Comcast must provide funding for public access television stations. Customers are assessed a fee that supports the channels.
In Vermont, 25 independent management organizations across the state operate the public, education and government access (PEG) stations. Those groups received $6.8 million through Comcast in 2014.
Unlike many other states, that money goes directly to the management organizations producing the content, instead of a government intermediary. The PEG stations provide coverage of government meetings, and educational and community-oriented programming.
At a public hearing Wednesday, participants said they are grateful for Comcast’s funding of PEG stations but said the company isn’t doing enough to promote station programming.
PEG stations must convert their content to standard definition because Comcast does not give them access to high-definition channels. In addition, speakers said that the public access stations’ programming isn’t listed in the onscreen cable guide.
One speaker called that “the ghettoization” of public access television, a sentiment echoed by many others who spoke at the hearing, which was held at different sites across the state. Hi-Def is the industry standard, they said, and without the ability to present their content at that quality, PEG stations are at a disadvantage. PEG stations create content in Hi-Def and must then convert the footage before sending it to Comcast technicians.
Many areas in Vermont do not have cable service, and participants asked that Comcast run cable lines to homes into those locations. Currently, the state can’t compel Comcast to extend service to an individual. However, there is a requirement that if 16 customers within a one-mile stretch of road want service, then Comcast must build out to them.
For an individual who wants service, the current requirement is that they pay a “contribution in aid of construction” based on an estimate from Comcast. If more people make use of the new cable line, then the customer receives a partial refund.
People who spoke at the hearing said they felt the public isn’t aware of the rules and how to obtain service. They called on the Public Service Board to require Comcast, as part of the new certificate, to come up with a “meaningful” rather than “aspirational” plan to extend cable to the entire state.
Some people said that Comcast’s rates, even for a basic cable television package, are too expensive and internet speeds are too slow. The PSB does not regulate Comcast’s broadband internet service, and the state is currently litigating whether it has authority over the company’s phone service.
Wednesday’s hearing was held using the Vermont Interactive Technologies video conferencing service at locations across the state. VIT is not funded in the state’s current budget, and will cease operations in December. People questioned how public hearings would be conducted without the service, and suggested Comcast be made to provide a solution as part of its new certificate of public good.
Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, said the most frequent complaint he receives about Comcast is high rates. The level of service people are requesting could lead to higher monthly cable bills, he said.
“We have to understand if we want all these things we’re going to have to pay for them. There’s no free lunch,” Mullin said.
The Department of Public Service and the Vermont Access Network, a trade group representing the independent PEG organizations, both have party status to the proceedings before the PSB.
Over the next six months, the parties will present evidence and give testimony to the PSB, and next July the board will hold a technical hearing on the issues at play in the new certificate.
Comcast’s current certificate expires at the end of December 2016, and the board must decide before that time whether to renew the certificate, make changes to current stipulations or deny the renewal.
