Last Wednesday’s public forum – held by the city’s Community Technology and Telecommunications Commission – on the current status and future issues relating to public-access television was “an incredible display of how much people in the Austin community value public-access TV,” said Linda Litowsky, executive director of channel-Austin (the newest moniker for what Austinites know as PACT). “I was amazed by the level of passion and commitment that brought so many people to a public forum with no specific issue in front of them,” said commission Chair Chip Rosenthal.
That’s one way of looking at it.
Seventy-five people – one of whom signed up simply as “Sputnik” (who hosts a PACT show called Texas Politics Biker Style) – signed up to speak, although not all of them were around by the time their turns arrived. “Are we going to limit the number of people who can speak or the amount of time we give each person?” asked Commissioner Arthur Sampson. No such luck. Everyone who signed up and stayed long enough to hear his or her name called got a full three minutes on the mic.
The crowd, heavy with public-access producers and former producers, was up in arms about $1.3 million in capital equipment funds – which Time Warner Cable pays as part of its municipal franchise agreement with the city of Austin – that will not be disbursed until the resolution of an ongoing suit brought by the Texas Cable Association, aimed at getting cable companies out of these city agreements. The money would go to improving the equipment used in public-access production – which producers and management agree is in terrible shape. On the other hand, if the TCA wins its lawsuit and cable companies are released from their municipal franchise agreements, that money would be gone.
Rondella Hawkins, manager of the city’s Telecommunications & Regulatory Affairs office, was quoted as long ago as September 2006 saying there was a “dire need” for newer equipment at PACT. This week she said that the process of getting the equipment “has gone on a little longer than we would have liked.” She said the process of getting the equipment money from Time Warner “does not typically take this long” but that “there is a limited pool of remaining funds” (which will be $1.1 million after the latest shipment of about $200,000 worth of equipment is disbursed to channelAustin and Channel 6), and some of the necessary equipment has already been ordered, so the list of newer equipment needs to be updated. Hawkins said that the updated list would be sent to Time Warner within two months.
Acknowledging the long-endured shortfall, some speakers made impassioned pleas to the commissioners to do whatever they could to get the City Council to keep public-access television flickering.
Among the other fights simmering was one visibly represented by Nick Papatonis, a public-access producer in an ongoing dispute with the city’s administration of the service (“Tempest in the PACT Teapot,” by Wells Dunbar, Feb. 8). Papatonis said he is still not allowed into the PACT building in retaliation for calling the administration incompetent (although the administrators in question take a somewhat dimmer view). On this evening, Papatonis just wanted to make sure his “Terminate PACT” sign got more Channel 6 camera-time than any “We Heart PACT” signs in the room.
Some who signed up to speak were just pissed about the way the meeting was run. The commissioners rearranged the agenda so that the forum was the last item of business, so it didn’t begin until 9pm and didn’t end until after midnight. By then, 18 people who had signed up to speak had departed when their names were called.
The real issue here appears to be that funding for public-access TV in Austin may be going the way of the dodo. Even if the TCA is unable to get cable companies out of their municipal franchise agreements, Austin’s agreement with Time Warner expires in 2011 and cannot be reinstated because of 2005 state legislation that eliminated municipal agreements in favor of a statewide franchise system that eases other providers into the video market. Agreements already in place at that time were kept until their expiration date.
“Ideally, at that time, the city manager’s office and the City Council would use some of the franchise fees collected from Time Warner that go into the city’s general fund to fund public access,” said Stefan Wray, communications director at channel-Austin. “That future funding needs to be the discussion.” Hawkins confirmed that franchise fees go to the general fund, not specifically to PACT.
Council Member Jennifer Kim told the Chronicle that when the contract expires, it will be up to the council to find new ways to fund public access.
This article appears in March 21 • 2008.