The following February 1, 2012 email from Jay April, president and CEO of Akaku: Maui Community Television, to DCCA Kealii Lopez challenges Oceanic Time Warner’s unilateral moves of several public access channels from analog to digital signals.
Digital signals take much less bandwidth than analog, so the company can create several digital channels in place of a single analog channel.
But one immediate practical impact of the move to digital is that the signal becomes unavailable to certain viewers without a special electronic translator.
April says “nearly half of cable subscribers” on Kauai and the Big Island fall in that category.
In any case, if you’re interested in or concerned about the future of public access cable, you’ll want to read through the letter.
Aloha Director Lopez,
I just got word that Oceanic Time Warner has just effected the migration of PEG Channel 55 from analog to digital on the Big Island and Kaua?i cable systems. What this means is that effective today nearly half of cable subscribers on those islands cannot view any educational PEG channels without first obtaining special equipment. It also means that nearly 40% of the bandwidth dedicated to public benefit by federal law has been taken for commercial use without compensation or due process. As you are well aware, Oceanic Time Warner has done this in violation of existing neighbor island Decision and Orders that govern their franchise agreements. You have also been made aware of a similar case in Michigan (Dearborn v. Comcast ) where a TRO was granted by the 6th Circuit against the cable operator for possible violation of Federal Law for doing almost exactly the same thing. In that case, because the LFA chose to enforce rather than ignore it?s franchise agreement, the City of Dearborn obtained a settlement that restored the channels to the analog tier, guaranteed the channels on digital and HD tiers, and received $250,000 in compensation. You also know that we fully appreciate that digital and IPTV is the inevitable future of cable technology and we support efforts by our educational partners to add learning on demand services. We need to point out however that this particular migration at this time is not only premature, it is in violation of agreements now in place. There has also been misinformation put forth to our educational partners that their digital success is linked to abandonment of analog spectrum now. We know that this is not true and that there is no reason why education cannot move forward with digital improvements while simultaneously remaining on the analog tier until this issue is resolved.
I want you to know that my colleagues and myself do appreciate the ongoing conversations we have had with the Department and yourself regarding this issue going back as far as September of 2011. We are concerned, however that apparently very little has been done to stop the erosion of PEG channels on your watch. The Maui DOE channel 56 is already gone and Akaku is concerned about a similar event taking place with Channel 55 on Maui?s cable systems to go along with Oceanic?s recent rate hike, and we need to know now where the Department stands on this issue. Since Maui County will be entering into a franchise renewal negotiation in the near future, the failure of the Department to enforce its Maui contract cannot help but send the wrong signal to Oceanic that will impair our ability to achieve a fair franchise agreement in 2013. The harm does stop there. Apart from a major channel branding and marketing disruption, the loss and dissolution of public benefit bandwidth as a result of this move costs us money and audience we will never get back; diminishes the ability to be treated on a par with commercial services such as local broadcast channels; and inhibits community broadband efforts by usurping electronic spectrum from the public sphere. It creates significant barriers to viewership; blurs the distinction, definition, placement and jurisdiction of PEG channels; and due to the significant barrier of finding out about and acquiring special equipment, reduces DOE and UH stations to what amounts to dedicated institutional channels with limited viewership. This ignores the general wider public audiences who can still benefit from educational programming and pay their taxes to be able to have free and open access to it. What this migration does to put it simply, is to allow the cable operator to appropriate 40% of our electronic parkland for its own commercial use. The math to support this metaphor is as follows: 2 analog channels (55 and 56 )equal 8 digital channels and the 2 digital channels that supposedly replace them( 355 and 356) do not amount to enough bandwidth to even compensate for 1 analog channel. So if analog channels were acres of parkland, you are down sizing 5 contiguous acres of parkland to 3 acres and, in return for those two lost prime acres, you get 1/2 an acre located way out in the boondocks where you need a special key (digital cable box) to get in. It is difficult to see how a deal like that is in the public interest.
It was encouraging to hear Cable Television Administrator, Yabusaki not rule out some sort of “legal action” in his recent testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection but as defenders of the little that is left of public benefit electronic real estate, we are deeply troubled by the implications of this most recent encroachment. If there was a time that the DCCA would stand up and enforce our neighbor island contracts, the time is now. I would like to once again, respectfully request that you will let me and the public know whether or not you intend to exercise your authority as Director to do that or, alternatively whether you can facilitate a reasonable quid pro quo on behalf of the PEGs as soon as possible. It will also help me to sleep better knowing that another PEG channel won?t be unilaterally moved to digital Siberia as I sleep.
Sincerely,
Jay April
President and CEO
Akaku: Maui Community Television