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school districts serving the member cities; one isused for government access, with each ofthe cities" programming distributed discretely within the their own municipal boundaries; and one isused for programming distributed b»NASA via satellite. Because anumber ofcable subscribers were interested inthe service, W North Suburbs agreed toput the NASA programming on one of the community channels when a previous franchisee no longer wanted tocarry it. Comcast's formal proposal would cut the number of Standard Definition (SD) channels from eight to three and add one High Definition channel, with the possibility of adding one additional SDchannel inthe future. (Comcast proposal p.74) The criteria for getting the HD channel is"not less than 5hours per day, 5days per week oflocally produced, non -character generated, (emphasis added), /I a3tBDdard that does not appear tOapply toany commercial ---channel onComoast'ssystem. |nfact, some cable programming services do not cab|ecastANY first -run programming. Further, Conncast'semphasis onfirst-run programming devalues the PEG channels role asavideo archive ofthe community. There isno requirement infederal law the puts a"first-run"restriction onPEG programming and would infringe onthe WSAC'sfreedom of speech protections. Whether itisalive broadcast, i.e,first- run,orareplay of aprevious broadcast does not increase ordecrease its value to the community. As such, the NSCC cannot recommend adoption of the Comcast proposal on either the number of SD and HD channels offered by Comcast nor the hurdles imposed in gaining new |naddition, failure totransition PEG programming toHDwill marginalize this programming and ensure that itwill NOT bewatched. The reality isthat cable subscribers with HD television sets tend to watch only HD channels/programming services, and the trend isthat most, ifnot all, programming services will beprovided inHDorits successor technology (likely 4K1. CTV North Suburbs has already invested inHDand HD -capable equipment, and substantial amount of the programming produced at CTV North Suburbs, as well as that turned in forcab|eoast, is already in the HD format. At some point in the future, it will difficult to purchase SDproduction equipment. But itisthe content mfthese channels and what they represent that ismost important. The community channels provide a variety of programming for local audiences that are not available elsewhere onthe cable system, and they give avoice topeople and groups who are often not heard or seen. |nZO13,community producers and volunteers contributed almost Z7,OOOhours toproduce 558programs for the PEG channels, and ClVstaff produced another 206 programs. These include city panade andfestiva|s,schoo\sportsandconcerts(bothfrorn K-12 and post -secondary schools); election coverage; high school robotics competitions; talk shows about community people, organizations and activities, such as "Tale of Ten Cities;" community band and orchestra concerts (The Shoreview Northern Lights Variety Band, the Roseville Community Band, the Roseville Strings); and aprogram byand about people with 0