"I'd be interested in finding out if in reality cable companies are actually
providing nothing to the local communities, but rather simply walking away
with exorbitant profits under the guise of providing PEG for communities."

Jeff,

I hope you are KIDDING and that was tongue-in-cheek!
Does it matter what GUISE they use?

Or perhaps you never heard of Adelphia or Cablevision....

Adelphia, the Rigas Family Thief's!

or

Cablevision, that owns Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden and a
few more venues AND the local NEWS 12 Channel,
[yeah the one that NEVER covers Public Access Television issues]

When you control the NEWS and don't educate the public about public
access... Well I think you get the picture!

The profits come from the Subscribers paying an inflated price for
programming
And forced to pay for programming they NEVER watch!

Ever notice how [perhaps majority of subs] can't GET their favorite things
without going into the higher priced package?
Like should we pay higher prices to get NASA TV?

The profits come from Advertisers & Subs

-r

-----Original Message-----
From: jeff garland [mailto:digitaleye@...]
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 1:43 PM
To: Steven Leonard; Alliance Forum
Subject: Re: [FORUM] Re: customer pays city tax on cableco's profits (was:
Q: rights of way etc)

Aloha,

FYI, federal law caps franchise fees at 5%. Here in Hawai'i they only
collect 4.67%.

In some states &/or municipalities they have what is known as "enterprise
zones" for "High Tech" companies in which companies that are involved in
certain "High Tech" businesses get tax breaks up to the full taxes that
would normally be assessed. In other words, some cable companies, seeing as
they are providing high speed internet access, pay no state & or local tax.
I wonder if the Alliance has compiled a list of cable companies that don't
have to pay taxes, pass on franchise fees on to the community, and an
average cost per providing a PEG channel (which is also passed through). I'd
be interested in finding out if in reality cable companies are actually
providing nothing to the local communities, but rather simply walking away
with exorbitant profits under the guise of providing PEG for communities. I
have always found it odd that the franchise fee is said to be rent for the
cable company's use of the Public's right of way, but the public pays it. We
pay ourselves for the cable company to use our property? Because Hawai'i
PEGs are "non membership", we have no say in how the money we pay ourselves
is used!

'Olelo is trying to obtain an additional channel to facilitate more
government programming and Time Warner is vigorously fighting it
<http://www.hawaii.gov/dcca/areas/catv/decisions_orders/reconsideration/twe/
> , even though it would appear it won't cost them a dime. The channels that
are next to the PEG tier are Fit TV & HSN. I'm betting that Fit TV will be
the one provided to 'Olelo (if they get it) so the revenues from the home
shopping channel, which in Hawai'i are excluded from their "gross revenues"
for franchise fee calculation, will not be interrupted.

FYI Time Warner appoints 3 of 'Olelo's 9 board directors. Time Warner
alleges that 'Olelo is not properly promoting the channels they already have
and the viewership for all 5 of the channels they already have is less than
.6% of all viewing. Makes one wonder why the 3 Time Warner appointed
"volunteer" board director's would be approving 'Olelo's $247,000.00
"Advertising and Promotions" budget knowing that it will ineffectively
promote the channels. The franchise authority obviously sees no conflict in
Time Warner appointing the 3 Time Warner directors. Time Warner is the only
cable company in the entire state (monopoly), thus the only company the
franchise authority oversees. The franchise authority's wife works for Time
Warner. Due to the toothless ethics law in this state, the Ethics Commission
found no conflict in the franchise authority's wife working for Time Warner.
Would it not be appropriate for the Alliance to come out with a position
paper regarding the appearance of this and openly send to the Hawai'i state
legislature and Governor?

It appears that all PEG access is in reality is a PR tool, at our expense,
that is designed to make the cable company look like a good neighbor while
assisting governments in distributing propaganda while we the people are
being told it is for our access to the medium! I look forward to the day
that the Alliance comes up with legislation that exposes this reality and
proposes the necessary changes to protect the original intent (or illusion)
of Public Access media. I have been asking the Alliance for their draft
legislation for going on 10 years! It's time for the Alliance to be
proactive rather than reactive!

Tony, does the Alliance have the original committee reports from the
original federal legislation for Public Access (that should show the
original intent) on your website?

jg

________________________________


Steven Leonard wrote:

No doubt that this abuse and the cable consumer will suffer because
of this.

But: The bad guy is not Time Warner, it is the City for making this
silly tax on advertising.

Typically here in Missouri most franchises are 5% or 6% on cable
service. There is no fee on advertising that goes to the City.

Steven

BHUSTON@... wrote:

Steven Leonard wrote:
> I know my response is a little sarcastic, but I think we
all need
> to realize that businesses do not pay taxes and fees,

It's far worse than the Time Warner not paying their taxes.

The new franchise agreement explicitly states that franchise
fees will be collected on advertising, but these are passed
on to the customer.

So if Time Warner can increase their revenues by replacing
a channel with content with a shopping channel, then their
customers
pay the city 3% of whatever this revenue increase is! It's
insane.
As Time Warner gets more advertising revenue, the is a
corresponding
transfer of wealth from their customers into the city's
general
fund!

So if the city wants more money for fixing potholes or for
maintence
on their fire trucks, all the Mayor needs to do is tell Time
Warner
to add a shopping channel!

The customer pays twice, once because their paying for one
less
channel w/content, but again as a tax to the city on the
cable
co's increased ad revenue.

> If the City doesn't like it, than
> they either need to buy the system, or start their own.
Which can
> be done! Municipalities running cable as a cost-of-service
utility
> is a great idea if a city is committed to letting
professionals run
> it.

Yes. I have been advocating this since learning about
Glasgow, KY,
Burlington VT, the http://newrules.org project, etc.


Bill Huston
607-724-1755
bhuston@...




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