“PEG Access in the Digital Age”: The Entire Congressional Hearing, in Order, in YouTube Clips

Here are clips of the January 29 hearing held by the House Telecommunications & Internet Subcommittee, “PEG Services in the Digital Age.” The clips are in chronological order, beginning with opening statements (1-7), witnesses testimony (8-11), and representatives’ questions (12-20).

The hearing was called largely in response to Comcast’s recent attempt at ‘channel slamming’ in Michigan (moving PEG access channels into the 900 digital-tier range) but also included a look at AT&T’s U-Verse and its second-class-citizen treatment of PEG access channels. Witnesses represented the City of Dearborn, Comcast, AT&T, and the Alliance for Community Media.

In addition to Annie Folger’s testimony on behalf of the ACM (11), PEG access advocates will be especially cheered by the questions asked by Markey, Dingell, Gonzalez, Rush, and Solis (12, 14, 16, 18, 19), as well as by Chairman Markey’s closing remarks (20).

PEG access advocates should write their representatives, whether or not they are supportive of PEG access protections, and whether or not they are on this Committee, and let them know how much you and your communities value these channels. Then, plan to make an appointment to visit them during our national conference in Washington this July.

(It also wouldn’t hurt if you commented on these clips as you see fit over at YouTube. Though the clips are presented in order here on “Clippings”, over there you can help stimulate and broaden participation in the discussion. Soon these will also be on blip.tv, and archive.org, so there will be even more opportunities for creating and pursuing public conversations on these topics.)

[ The witnesses written testimony can be downloaded from this page. ]
~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 01: Anna Eshoo (D-CA)

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 02: Cliff Stearns (R-FL)

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 03: Ed Markey (D-MA)

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 04: Fred Upton (R-MI)

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 05: John Dingell (D-MI)

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 06: Jane Harman (D-CA)

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 07: Lois Capps (D-CA), Hilda Solis (D-CA), & Gene Green (D-TX)

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 08: John O’Reilly, Dearborn Mayor

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 09: David Cohen, Comcast VP

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 10: Gail Torreano, AT&T Michigan President

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 11: Annie Folger, Alliance for Community Media; Midpenisula Community Media Center Executive Director

~~~

Here is the silent video the Alliance presented, showing how long it takes to select a PEG access channel on a U-Verse system.

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 12: Ed Markey (D-MA) questions

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 13: Fred Upton (R-MI) questions

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 14: John Dingell (D-MI) questions

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 15: Joe Barton (R-TX) questions

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 16: Charles Gonzalez (D-TX) questions

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 17: Cliff Stearns (R-FL) questions

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 18 : Bobby Rush (D-IL) questions

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 19 : Hilda Solis (D-CA) questions

[ Representative Solis hits on two of the many problems with the U-Verse approach – inability to handle closed captioning and SAP programming. AT&T’s Gail Torreano seems to misunderstand Solis’ SAP question; her ‘yes we can’ answer is not true. – rm ]

~~~

House PEG Access Hearing – 20: Closing Statements

~

compiled by Rob McCausland
Alliance for Community Media
202-393-2650
web: http://ourchannels.org
wiki: http://peg.ourchannels.org

Explore posts in the same categories: cable franchising, cable vs telco, channel slamming, government access, IPTV, localism, municipal programming, PEG access TV, public access television, spectrum auction, U-Verse, video franchising