Resources

• How to Bring Public Access Television to Your Town .

• The History of Public Access Television

• I-net diagram for Troy (pdf)

Audio & Video resources coming soon!

Recent News Stories About Access

• Negotiations for cable pact grind to a halt, Troy Record
TROY - Negotiations for a new cable franchise agreement with Time Warner have all but ground to a halt, city officials said. Deputy Mayor Dan Crawley said the city is awaiting a proposal to see what Time Warner is willing to give up in exchange for allowing the media giant to use public land for its infrastructure.

• "Help make public access television your own", Troy Record
Interactive television. Two-way communication. Internet access and online services. Movies and video games on demand. Distance learning ...They are all part of the future of cable communications. They may also be part of your future. What used to be a cut-and-dried proposition - the leasing of city-owned property to a company to run the wires that conduct television programming - is now a complex endeavor.

• "Working for community media center", Times Union
Fully equipped facility would allow residents to produce home-grown programs
...SARATOGA SPRINGS -- One video camera owned by the Saratoga County Economic Opportunity Council is the entire inventory of the city's production capabilities. The creation of a fully equipped Community Media and Technology Center is a goal the Saratoga County League of Women Voters is pursuing through a newly formed Media Center Committee to work with the city government.

• "Public-access TV in rough shape", Post-Star
Spa City urged to take tough stance in cable talks ...SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Public-access television in the city is worse now than it was 30 years ago, when cable companies were first emerging, the city's community media consultant says.

• Audit finds Time Warner owes cities $450,000, Post Crescent
Time Warner Cable allegedly underpaid more than $450,000 in franchise fees to Appleton, Neenah and Menasha from 1998 to 2003, according to a recently completed audit.

• "Video program puts a focus on learning", Times Union
Troy-- The Ark's after-school class uses interdisciplinary skills to create an animated video ...Stacy Lora, 9, wearing a pink smiley face sticker on her left cheek, was the "frame thief" one day earlier this week. She directed her peers from behind a video camera linked to a nearby computer.

• "Do Cable Deal Together", Schenectady Gazette
With about 90 percent of the cable market in Schenectady County (all but Princetown and part of Duanesburg), Time Warner has a virtual monopoly. That, of course, gives it a big advantage when negotiating contracts with the various municipalities — make that bigger advantage, because the municipalities lack the telecommunications and legal experts TW has at its disposal.

• A center for cable media is far goal, Schenectady Gazette
The goal is to have a cable television studio somewhere in Saratoga Springs, complete with a small professional staff, that would produce and air quality local programs.
But reaching the goal is a complex, lengthy undertaking.

• "Whose Programming Is This?", Metroland
Cable contracts are up for renewal around the region, and one community—Albany—still lags behind in providing public access...By most accounts, the process of negotiating a city’s TV cable contract usually has a David-and-Goliath feel, pitting local governments with little experience in such issues against powerful cable companies with an army of lawyers at their disposal

• "Access Deterred", Metroland
Many local governments fail to offer adequate public access to cable, but advocates aim to change that...public-access cable channels throughout the Capital Region flourishing as the vibrant electronic democracies they could be, their schedules filled with locally produced documentaries and talk shows on issues of local interest; rebroadcasts of cultural events from the region’s numerous colleges and universities; and local city-council and school-board meetings broadcast like CSPAN, live with multiple camera angles, speaker IDs and subject headings

• "Cable TV's public access responsibility", Times Union
A dynamic region consists of communities successful in part because they have good access to local information sustaining their civic, cultural and political life...Yet, local news and information about community affairs is the orphan of the information age. Neither commercial print and broadcast media nor public radio and TV find it in their interest to provide broad and continuous coverage of civic or community affairs like meetings of local planning boards and activities of entities engaged in civic, cultural and business pursuits.

• "Public Access Channels Important", Times Union
The Federal Communications Commission last week relaxed regulations on television ownership that will lead to more consolidation, and perhaps fewer viewing options.

• "Monterey testing wireless technology", Monterey Herald
A WiFi system could save money and improve efficiency ...Web-surfing laptops may be the newest weapons in a police officer's arsenal...The city of Monterey is experimenting with a high-tech wireless Internet system -- also known as WiFi -- to streamline its agencies' communications. And because Monterey already has an innovative underground network of connected computers, setting up a wireless system even in the area's hilly terrain could be relatively simple and inexpensive.

• "Proposed State Regs Threaten Public Access", Times Union
While the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has opened the floodgates to domination of local print and broadcast media by a few media powerhouses, the NYS Department of Public Service appears to be proceeding to use its regulatory powers over the cable television industry to suck the oxygen from the last vestige of local information broadcasting, community based public access TV...

• "Groups Call Cable Deregulation A Failure For Consumers", U.S. PIRG
New Report Provides Blueprint For Reform ...Increased industry concentration and anti-competitive practices by cable providers since cable industry deregulation in 1996 have prevented competitors from gaining enough market share to give consumers real choices, lower cable rates or improve cable service quality, according to a new report...

• "Hoping to Attract Callers to the Internet", NY Times
NEW ORLEANS, May 2 - Some of America's biggest telecommunications companies are meeting here this week to discuss how best to provide phone services to consumers. It will not be telephone companies talking, though, but cable providers.

• Capital District Area Labor Federation letter of support
"Labor group also backing public access to cable"