06-11-2014 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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May 23, 2014 Page 17 Formal franchise renewal hearing. Announcements on the website were also directed through other avenues to PEG programmers, which included the following: • The NSCC website announced the hearing with a graphic of raised fists and a message to "speak up for community media and the North Suburbs." A similar message was sent to "local volunteers, producers, and viewers" of PEG programming. The messages said that if Comcast's proposal were accepted, "CTV will lose its operating grant, which supports [all PEG programming.]" (As noted above, the NSCC cannot condition renewal on PEG operational funding from Comcast subscribers.) • Another message stated that Comcast's proposal to eliminate operational funding is "alarming [in] the fact that [Comcast) is generating approximately $14 million in operating income" from the North Suburbs, tells viewers how the NSAC's capital needs won't be met by Comcast's proposal, and asks "how will we maintain our sense of local community without this access programming?' It says that. LEAs have always won franchising litigation, and closes by telling readers "we need you to help us make the case for PEG access/community media ... No less than the future of C'1'\r North Suburbs is at stake." • The NSCC's executive director went on a radio show titled "Cable Under Siege" to get listeners to oppose Comcast's proposal. She said "[I]Ns frustrating when a company like Comcast comes in and says MPEG is] not valuable, we don't want to support it anymore." (Comcast has never said this and that it is not Comcast's view or position.) She said "[Comcast has] been very candid in saying that they don't value community television." When the host said that Comcast is so big that it can "control ... whatever their agenda is," the NSCC's executive director responded "exactly" She said that any PEC reduction will just "go back to Philadelphia, to their coffers." This show was posted and endorsed on C'1'V's F acebook site. • The NSCC Staff released "'Talking Points" that told people how to oppose Comcast's positions in the renewal. These efforts by the Commission to mobilize opposition to Comcast during what was supposed to be a quasi-judicial process now appear to be manifestations of a deeper bias that Comcast believes has destroyed any semblance of a fair process.