I was more than a little surprised to discover that Time Warner/Oceanic Cable has used my comments about public access in what appears to be a broad, multi-pronged attack by the corporate giant on Olelo Community Media, Oahu’s provider of public, education, and government cable programming.
TW/Oceanic made numerous references and lifted long passages out of my February 27, 2012 post (“Have community access media organizations adapted to the digital age?“). These are included in a March 29, 2012 document filed by TW/Oceanic in a proceeding reviewing Olelo’s application to continue to provide public access services.
TW/Oceanic took the unusual step of intervening in the proceeding at the same time that the company is already challenging Olelo’s funding request for new equipment and facilities, a case that is already in arbitration.
And Kauai Rep. James Tokioka, who works for Oceanic, has been leading criticism of Olelo within the legislature, despite what seems to be a pretty clear conflict of interest (see Civil Beat, “Hawaii Lawmaker Voted on Bills Backed By His Employer — Oceanic Cable“).
TW/Oceanic’s is pursuing contradictory arguments that put Olelo in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” position. On the one hand, TW/Oceanic cites my comments in criticizing Olelo for being slow to adapt to the new world of digital communications and the openings to new and increasingly democratic forms of technology. On the other hand, TW/Oceanic denies any responsibility for extending the reach of community media into the new digital space, even when aimed at integrating cable programming, streaming, and social media use.
Here’s how Olelo CEO Roy Amemiya put it in a recent interview:
Q: What is the status of your equipment at ‘Olelo? Is it all fairly new and modern?
A: Oh, not at all. The majority of our equipment has been fully depreciated, and we’re currently negotiating with Oceanic Time Warner to help us through this digital transition that we started a year ago, because much of our technology was analog. And manufacturers don’t support that kind of equipment anymore.
Q: So are you digital now?
A: We could be. We’re still analog on three of our four channels.
Q: Is upgrading the equipment going to require a big capital investment?
A: Yes. About $6 million over three years.
Q: If you couldn’t get that all from Oceanic, would this be an opportunity for corporate donors?
A: It could be, but we can’t say too much because we are in arbitration with Oceanic.
Q: About what?
A: About the amount of capital funding that they will be providing us.
Q: That’s something they have to pony up, like part of their condition of operating?
A: Yes, absolutely. The way it works is, they use public rights of way …
Q: You mean like on the utility poles?
A: Yeah. I’m talking about the sidewalks and everything underground. They don’t pay rent in terms of dollars, but they pay rent in terms of public benefits, and one of those is to provide the funding for community television.
Q: Will Hawaiian Telcom have to pony up something, too?
A: Yes.
Q: Why should cable TV customers have to be paying for ‘Olelo?
A: Oh, I think that it’s very clear that they believe there’s a big public benefit.
Q: “They,” meaning who?
A: The people that we’re serving. That comes out loud and clear. They believe in the First Amendment right that’s in our Constitution. Then if you look at what happened in the Arab spring and what’s going on in Syria, you can see what happens when you censor your citizenry. It’s not a good thing.
The TW/Oceanic attacks on public access media appear to be part of a broad, nationwide attempt by the major cable providers to weaken the public benefit provisions of state and local franchise agreements. A study last year by the Alliance for Community Democracy surveyed access providers across the country. Among its key findings:
• PEG Access Centers in at least 100 communities across the United States have been closed since 2005. A disproportionate number (93) exclusively served the public.
• Hundreds more PEG Access Centers in six states affected by state franchising laws may be forced to close or experience serious threats to financial and in-kind support over the next three years.
• Almost half of the 165 survey respondents providing financial information for 2005 and 2010 reported an average funding drop of 40% during that time period.
Corporations like TW/Oceanic are actively lobbing state and local government, and at the same time spending heavily on legal challenges to funding requirements tied to their cable franchises. It’s important to recall why federal law included public access programming requirements.
From the original Cable Act of 1984:
One of the greatest challenges over the years in establishing communications policy has been assuring access to the electronic media by people other than the licensees or owners of those media. The development of cable television, with its abundance of channels, can provide the public and program providers the meaningful access that, up until now, has been difficult to obtain. A requirement of reasonable third-party access to cable systems will mean a wide diversity of information sources for the public — the fundamental goal of the First Amendment — without the need to regulate the content of programming provided over cable.
Almost all recent franchise agreements provide for access by local governments, schools, and non-profit and community groups over so-called “PEG” (public, educational, and governmental) channels. Public access channels are often the video equivalent of the speaker’s soap box or the electronic parallel to the printed leaflet. They provide groups and individuals who generally have not had access to the electronic media with the opportunity to become sources of information in the electronic marketplace of ideas. PEG channels also contribute to an informed citizenry by bringing local schools into the home, and by showing the public local government at work.
Conflating the murder of civilians in Syria with the Olelo/TW-Oceanic dispute. Nice sense of proportion there, Roy.
Richard, you are comparing apples to oranges. How’s this for proportion? Time Warner takes back Channel 49 from Olelo and gives the public porn pay for service stations for profit? This is staying on the topic of protecting our free speech and not allowing Media Giants to dominate our air waves.
Roy, please add El Jazeera to your media access, so that citizens can have a more accurate account of events in Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. I just switched to digital, more stations but continued poor quality from Oceanic. I such deleting the adult access channels and all the religious channels that pray on people…
Where’s the DCCA in all this? They are the one’s who are supposed to be safeguarding the public’s interests. Olelo thinks they own the assets of the PEG, and any new assets funded by Oceanic. I’ve contended all along that this is public money (and assets) in play and DCCA should get control of it.
As a former Oceanic employee,that’s another reason why I subscribe to Directv. O/TW wants it all and they don’t want to share anything with anyone.
Arrogant.
The quality of OC has to be the worst in the country. The constant pixilation on their HD channels is annoying.
The public does not seem to “get it.” Time Warner is using their “public right of way” to make millions of dollars of profit for no rent. They are only required to give 5% of just their cable TV profits and not their digital, internet, on demand, telephone profits. Hawaii is one of their most lucrative profit centers in the nation! If Time Warner can force Olelo to give up their analog channels, the corporate giant can gain up to 30 digital channels for each analog station. TW just “took back illegally” Channel 49 from Olelo. The public got Hustler and other porn stations in return for this.
`Olelo carries Democracy Now five days a week. That’s where you will find info on Syra, Arab Spring, and much more. PBS and HPR are not interested in carrying the program, but it ‘s on `Olelo.
How is showing all those foreign newsfeeds considered “public access to the tools of media” or any kind of local soapbox? More like an easy payday just replaying stuff you could get better on the internet.
Typical. O/TW raises our bill (by almost $10/month), and at the same time has been quietly whittling away the PEG budget (from 5% to almost half that). Yet they make millions off of Hawaii? Hmmmm. Something is wrong here. From the interview quoted above, it seems Olelo is ready to go 100% digital (a good thing), and wants to eventually upgrade to HD quality (a very good thing). If they can replace their equipment for $6M, I say go for it. We pay the same every month for cable, I’d rather that get spent here in Hawaii that siphoned off to a corporate tax haven somewhere.
Another public asset cable business gets for free is aesthetic. There are just a few electric and phone lines overhead in my neighborhood, but a massive ugly mess of loose cable lines in the sky overhead. Not sure if Outdoor Circle has this one their watch or not as the buildup has been a subtle accumulation of negative visual impact rather than a single event.
Oceanic, if you are not happy here, please go home to Time Warner headquarters. Someone can buy your off in Hawaii.
“PEG Access Centers in at least 100 communities across the United States have been closed since 2005. A disproportionate number (93) exclusively served the public.” I have been involved with Hawaii PEG since 1998 and although they emphasize the P it is the G and then the E that gets most of the pie. It should be GEP not PEG. All the funds and resources are sloshed together to obscure this fact. Something smells fishy here, and it is a rather large red herring to distract from bill HCR 183 HD1 REQUESTING THE AUDITOR TO PERFORM A FOCUSED FINANCIAL AND PERFORMANCE AUDIT… The focus is the PEGs. They have never had a state audit despite receiving over $100 million dollars in state mandated cable subscriber monies (your money). As a former Ho`ike board member and member of the oldest users group in Hawaii CMPA ( Community Media Producers Association) I can state without hesitation the PEGS need a state audit and have since CMPA requested one in 1998. Regardless of who introduced the bill this audit is needed and has been for years. Ironic that “public access” lacks transparency and is anti-sunshine. Will the audit “hurt” the PEGS? Without a doubt. Totally nontransparent and unaccountable and today just a bunch of Dinos! Google Plus on-air is a worldwide TV station with a 10 camera audio follow video switcher streaming live in Google+ Hangouts, and Youtube, and archives to program on Youtube for replay all automatically and for FREE! Not a mention of the current director of DCCA, former ED of Olelo, formerly with who was it now, oh yeah, Time Warner! Not a fan of media corporations in any way but these PEGs in Hawaii are sycophants to government power and have given the Hawaii public a non-transparent shaft. Use those moneys to set up ubiquitous free community wifi.
Just one question:
Did Oceanic build the cable system that it utilizes or was it built with public funds?
For their part, the network television stations operated on a frequency that was theoretically “owned” by the public. Like ranchers or loggers who use public lands, they were in a sense “squatting” at very little cost. One of the few forms of compensation by the TV networks to the government was for the networks to telecast political conventions and presidential debates. At some point they simply refused to do this.
(Loggers do pay fees to log on public lands, but I believe that all of their fees are remitted to the Department of Transportation, which uses those fees exclusively to build roads for loggers on public lands. Scam.)
Again, the current status quo is of privately owned telecommunications systems simply disregarding their legal obligations to the public, as I understand it, even though they operate on the public spectrum.
So if Oceanic was built and administered with private funds, it is admirable that they have supported public access the way they have so far. Oceanic might be legally obligated to do so, but it is not according to the logic that governs the networks, I believe, which is the logic of compensation for a public good used for great private profit (an obligation that is simply ignored in practice).
Also, we like to come to this website and complain about the Star Advertiser, how mediocre and corrupt it is, and how much of a dinosaur it is in the digital age. It might, however, last a lot longer than we might think it will considering that most people are not interested in real news or issues, they want entertainment and the superficial feeling of being kept up to date. The minority of people who are interested in public affairs issues in depth are already online and avoid the Star Advertiser (or so they claim here). But you would also expect them to work to put Olelo online.
(In one of the comment sections on one of your posts, someone pointed out that Frontline would have a show that night on the financial meltdown, but then they noted that it was probably “too late” to notify prospective viewers. But Frontline is online with full episodes, 24/7. It’s schizophrenic that the commenter would make such a comment … online! And perhaps a sign of being from an older generation….)
The real issue is perhaps the digital divide. A local schoolteacher told me about how many or even most of her students did not come from families that had online access, not even dial-up, not to mention broadband. Also, people who do have Internet access sometimes don’t even know what Google is. (Seriously. Ask a librarian.) That is a massive developmental disadvantage.
And hopefully, Abercrombie’s “New Day” plan, with its focus on both early childhood education and updating the State’s 44-year-old computer system would address the digital divide’s effects on young people.
How can that be addressed on a shoe-string budget? (Is this something we could talk about on this blog?)
It’s curious how the New Day agenda morphed quickly from social and technological progress to promoting really bad versions of land development.
Okay, I should have read this first:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_television_franchise_fee
So Oceanic is officially a renter of public space, trying ostensibly to wiggle out of paying its rent.
Much thanks to Ed Coll’s useful information.
Pohuku has the money angle right. Please see. http://akaku.org/Main-page/Cable-Access-Gets-Slammed…Time-Porner-Gets-the-Land.html. Jay April of Akaku spells out the move from analog to digital and all that empty air waiting to be harvested and resold. Apparently the legislature is clueless. Saw a piece in the NY Times too. All kinds of fat analog accounts across the countryside being switched to digital (or dropped) to plump up cable profits….and diminish public access in the process.
Hi everyone, very good discussion. My input:
First; streaming on the internet is not television, even digital streaming on your television is not television, hard to grasp, but a TV channel is television and OTW is trying to put public access on the dark rim of their system, streaming digitally. The public citizen has very little chance to seek expression to match the corporations. I place PBS in the corporation category. Public access outlets were created to provide the open speech (Its not “free” by any stretch of imagination.) opportunities for each of us even if we as individuals don’t use it. Viewing the information is just as important as creating the information. Access is the key word.
OTW is a very, very large powerful corporation, owns many elected representatives and lobbies at will. The citizenry in comparison are very unorganized. Public Access outlets are localized and comparatively very disconnected There are national organizations, but programming is local. Even here in Hawaii, each county has a different Access Center and each have their own perspective and structure within the rules. I could go on for pages but one more point is the liberal/ conservative issue. 92% of all commercial political talk radio is conservative so if an outlet such as Akaku or Olelo presents a progressive liberal view point they are presenting an under-served perspective. The liberal media meme is a lie, plain and simple. Similar to the “fair and balanced” meme, a lie it is.
By the way OTW clears millions of Dollars per month here in Hawaii profit from each of us, quite a license they have.
This is the corporate structure of Time-Warner.
It’s what Olelo is up against, and its quite daunting.
http://www.cjr.org/resources/?c=timewarner
TIME WARNER COMPANY
One Time Warner Center
New York, NY 10019
Voice (212) 484-8000
http://www.timewarner.com/
Holdings:
——————————————
Home Box Office (HBO):
HBO
HBO Asia
HBO Central Europe
HBO Domestic and International Program Distribution
HBO Go
HBO Home Entertainment
HBO Latin America
HBO Mobile International (United Kingdom, Japan, Cyprus, Greece)
HBO On Demand
HBO On Demand International (Israel, United Kingdom, Japan, Cyprus, Greece)
Cinemax
MAX Go
Cinemax On Demand
E! Latin America Channel
———————————-
Turner Broadcasting System:
Adult Swim
Boomerang
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network Asia Pacific
Cartoon Network Europe
Cartoon Network Japan
Cartoon Network Latin America
CNN/U.S.
CNN.com
CNN Airport Network
CNN en Español
CNN International
CNN Mobile
CNN Newsource
CNNRadio
Fashion TV
HTV
Infinito
Japan Image Communications Co., Ltd. (JIC)
Tabi Channel
Mondo TV Channel
HLN
HLN in Asia Pacific
HLN in Latin America
I-SAT
Much Music
NASCAR.com
Peachtree TV
PGA.com
PGATour.com
Pogo
TBS
TCM Asia Pacific
TCM Canada
TCM Europe
TCM Classic Hollywood in Latin America
TheSmokingGun.com
TNT HD
TNT Latin America
Tooncast
Toonami
truTV
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Network Television
Joint Ventures
BOING
Cartoon Network Korea
CETV
CNN.co.jp (Japanese)
CNN.de (German)
CNN-IBN
CNNj
CNNMoney.com
CNN Türk
Imagine
Lumière
Showbiz
Warner Channel
Zee/Turner
—————————-
Warner Bros. Entertainment:
DC Entertainment
DC Direct
DC Universe
MAD Magazine
Vertigo
Wildstorm Productions
New Line Cinema
Warner Bros. Consumer Products
Warner Bros. International Cinemas
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group
Warner Bros. Advanced Digital Services
Warner Bros. Anti-Piracy Operations
Warner Bros. Digital Distribution
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Warner Bros. Technical Operations
Warner Home Video
Warner Premiere
Warner Bros. Pictures Group
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures International
Warner Bros. Studio Facilities
Warner Bros. Television Group
Warner Bros. Animation
The CW Television Network
Studio 2.0
Telepictures Productions
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
Warner Bros. International Branded Services
Warner Bros. International Television Distribution
Warner Bros. International Television Production
Warner Horizon Television
Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures
————————————-
Time Inc.:
All You
Coastal Living
Cooking Light
Entertainment Weekly
Essence
Fortune
Fortune Asia
Fortune Europe
Golf Magazine
Health
InStyle
Money
People
People Country
People en Español
People StyleWatch
Real Simple
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated Kids
Southern Living
Sunset
This Old House
Time For Kids
Time Asia
Time Atlantic
Time Australia
Time U.S.
Time Inc. Digital Only
CelebrityBabyBlog.com
CNNMoney.com
FanNation.com
LIFE.com
MyHomeideas.com
MyRecipes.com
StyleFeeder.com
Grupo Editorial Expansión
Balance
Chilango
Chilango.com
CNNExpansión.com
CNN México
Cronosº
Dinero Inteligente
ELLE
Endless Vacation
Expansión
IDC
IDC Online
InStyle
Life and Style
Loop
Manufactura
Medio Tiempo
Metros Cubicos
Obras
Quién
Quo
Revolution
Travel & Leisure, Mexico
Vuelo
IPC Media
25 Beautiful Homes
Amateur Gardening
Amateur Photographer
Angler’s Mail
Beautiful Kitchens
Chat
Chat-It’s Fate
Chat Passion
Classic Boat
Country Homes & Interiors
Country Life
Cycle Sport
Cycling Active
Cycling Weekly
Decanter
Essentials
European Boat Builder
Eventing
Golf Monthly
Homes & Gardens
Horse
Horse & Hound
IBI
Ideal Home
InStyle (U.K.)
Livingetc
Look
Marie Claire
Motor Boat & Yachting
Motor Boats Monthly
MBR — Mountain Bike Rider
NME
Now
Nuts
Pick Me Up
Practical Boat Owner
Racecar Engineering
Rugby World
Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Shootinguk
Soaplife
Sporting Gun
Superyacht Business
Superyacht World
The Field
The Shooting Gazette
TV & Satellite Week
TV Easy
TVTimes
Uncut
VolksWorld
VW Camper & Bus
Wallpaper*
What Digital Camera
What’s on TV
Woman
Woman&Home
Woman’s Own
Woman’s Weekly
World Soccer
Yachting Monthly
Yachting World
IPC Digital Only
goodtoknow.co.uk
goodtoknow recipes
housetohome.co.uk
TrustedReviews.com
mousebreaker.com
YBW.com
—————————————–
Time Warner Investments Group:
Admeld
BroadLogic
Double Fusion
Everyday Health
Exent
Gaia Online
Glu Mobile
Meebo
Si TV
Simulmedia
Tremor Media
Visible World
——————————-
Time Warner Global Media Group
—————————–
Other:
Flixster
TMZ Radio
Despite the name The Alliance for Communications Democracy http://theacd.org/ the organization consists of 5 voting membership, all public access centers, paying an annual “contribution” of $3,000. Non voting subscribers pay $350 for copies of all reports. The website is minimalistic to say the least. IMHO it appears to be a non-democratic special interest front group consisting not of public access users, but rather public access boards.
It should be remembered that in Hawaii PEG majority board membership consist only of Board nominated & DCCA approved people. Seems any truly democratic org would allow the users of public access to elect the board that represent their interests, but it is clear by the very structure of these organizations the public user is the last thing they are representing and this is even more-so of The Alliance for Communications Democracy.
if olelo were given 100 millions of dollars in budget but delivered only 1,000′s of dollars of local programming value – IT’S NOT DOING ITS JOB. The foreign newsfeeds is just Olelo being lazy and hiding their wasteful use of resources. That’s why Olelo refuses effortd from the state procurement officer to compete in an open bid for the PEG contract, and continues to hide or fudge their number on hours of real local programming delivered.
jonthebur wrote “There are national organizations, but programming is local.”
Programming may be local but the vast majority of productions (excepting the “traffic channel” and E and G productions are national. Democracy Now (which I watch daily on the internet) for instance is produced in NYC. The TWC holdings are indeed vast and the corporate production model as opposed to a local community production model has hardly proven a successful strategy. Signing a piece of paper to sponsor a national or even foreign produced program (which displaces locally produced programs) does not make one a community producer, but perhaps giving the local community a voice was never the goal.
In defense of schizophrenic ONLINE of an older generation…..yes, lots of stuff is available online and my guess is most of Ian’s readers know this, but it often appears days after the program has aired. Book TV is/was this way. Big transitions in media will keep us busy. It is hard to imagine what will win out. Should we ditch the cable….get out some rabbit ears. If we put the bits of tin foil on will we pick up public access? I joined my family at the Honolulu car show a few weekends ago using Skype. .. sat in the new Fiat! It had a cloth roof like the Deu Ceveau.
BTW, The second part of that Frontline piece will air May 1. The header,
Why the Financial Crisis has not ended, caught my attention.