Today, the San Antonio City Council postponed until next week action that may eliminate Public, Educational, and Government (PEG) access television, after Texas Media Empowerment Project activists highlighted possible contradictions with Texas’ two-year old video franchise law.

The Council’s agenda included item #23, “Agreement with AT&T to conduct testing for PEG carriage on its system,” that deals with a proposed ordinance authorizing an agreement for AT&T to test its U-Verse TV Service to carry PEG programming.

Stefan Wray, the creator and maintainer of Austin-based blog site savetexasaccess.org, has been nominated for the Dewey Winburne Community Service Award at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival.

This award is given annually to the person who uses technology in a hands-on / grass-roots fashion to help level the playing field between the haves and the have-nots.

The 79th Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 5 in the Second Special Session. This new statute called for the formation of a Telecommunications Competitiveness Legislative Oversight Committee that was supposed to “conduct a joint interim study” with the Public Utilities Commission to, among other things, examine the “continuation of public, educational, and government (PEG) access channels.” But this committee never met.

It also said this committee “shall report its findings to the Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House of Representatives no later than December 31, 2006.” But that never happened.

The 80th Legislature in Texas has been in session since January 9. The House has not posted Committee assignments yet, but the Senate has. The Business and Commerce Committee is the Senate committee that wrote SB5 in the last session. It is likely the committee that would deal with any "clean-up" language this session. Here is the list of current members.

Austin American Statesman article:

FCC eases path for phone firms to offer TV
New rules face challenges in Congress and from public interest groups.

Link: www.statesman.com

Austin, TX – Public Access Community Television (PACT) objects to and fears today’s 3-2 vote by the Federal Communications Commission in favor of the Video Franchise Item in Docket 05-311 – and against public access television.

“Public Access Community Television will stand with the Alliance for Community Media (ACM), the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA), and others, to bring legal action to stop the FCC from overstepping its bounds and entering into the legislative arena,” said Linda Litowsky, PACT Executive Director.

Here is a link to a radio story on KUT FM that aired in Austin on December 20 in advance of the FCC meeting on video franchising.

TITLE: THE FCC VOTE MAY HURT PUBLIC ACCESS TELEVISION

LINK: www.kut.org/items/show/6840

12/19/06 Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) sent a joint letter to Chairman Martin and the Commissioners expressing their concerns over the proposed draft order in the franchising proceeding. Click here to read their letter.

FCC Vote Could Nix Funds for Access TV

Austin, TX – Action at Wednesday’s Federal Communications Commission meeting could cut funding and loosen requirements for public access television in Austin.

The FCC is scheduled to hold an Open Commission Meeting in Washington, D.C. at 9:30 am on Wednesday, Dec. 20, to discuss, in part, proposed rulemaking on video franchising (MB Docket No. 05-311).

PUBLIC ACTION NEEDED!
EMAIL/CALL CONGRESS TO STOP FCC!

(FCC DN MB 05-311)
The Alliance for Community Media has set up a site to make it easy for you, your friends, relatives and supporters to write your Congressional delegation. Congress needs to know that the FCC is on the verge of taking Congressional power as they rewrite cable law. It is important for Congress to know that their constituents are active in community media and that you are ready to fight.