AREA NINE CABLE COUNCIL VISION FOR 2007-2008
Prepared by Hal Levy, Chairman ANCC, 5/30/07
Thank you Council Members, guests and Cablevision representatives for your attendance this evening at the Annual Meeting of the Area Nine Cable Council. As we conclude the Council's 26th year of operation we look back on a very active year and also look ahead to great change in the video service industry.
During this past year, Cablevision was awarded a new eleven-year Cable franchise in Area 9 by the DPUC. Since our Annual Meeting a year ago, the Council participated in many days of hearings and made extensive filings to the DPUC for the franchising docket. We are gratified that through the Council's efforts, the successful PEG model in Area 9 is being preserved in the new franchise.
Great new challenges lay ahead for the Cable industry as it must now address the emergence of video service competition launched by the telephone companies and the technology of delivering video content over Internet Protocol. Although the competing U-verse service has not yet been rolled out to the public by AT&T in Connecticut, Cablevision has already been competing with Verizon FIOS in parts of its New York and New Jersey markets. We may soon be seeing a limited rollout of U-verse in portions of Area 9 towns. Over the years, the Council has been consistent in its position to favor competition in video services while maintaining a regulatory level playing field amongst the competitors. The DPUC decision last year to allow AT&T to introduce video service without the requirement of a Cable TV franchise satisfied the pro-competition position of ANCC but not the level playing field aspect. It appears however that this will be attended to in pending legislation, currently in the State legislature, to create a video franchising authority for Video IP service providers. Important aspects of this legislation provides for support of PEG access, carriage of CT-N, collection of gross receipts tax by the state for any provider delivering video programming to Connecticut households and an advisory council with local representation. It also includes a provision for traditional Cable companies to roll into similar franchising requirements in place of their Cable franchises once competition has been established in their franchise area. This provision also preserves the existing cable advisory councils and would appear to answer the question that I raised last year regarding ANCC's future.
We hope that the spirit of healthy competition will benefit the subscribers and that the companies will strive to win over customers by providing a superior service rather than trying to weaken their competitors with legal challenges. We believe that the video competitors recognize that PEG access is a very important component of their service and although created as a mandate in return for the cable operators' use of public rights-of-way, it is an important service supported by and owned by the public. Many of us on the Council have worked tirelessly to develop and preserve meaningful community access for all the citizens in our towns and we will continue our efforts to those means.
Community Access has been an area that the Council has worked for steadfastly since our inception twenty-six years ago. We fought to create town-specific E&G channels during Cablevision's franchising ten years ago and we fought just as hard to preserve the town-specific model during the recently completed franchise renewal. In the time between, the Council has been in the forefront of the development of those channels. We initiated and administered a program of direct access funding support to the Towns and Schools which has enabled many fine channels to develop in almost all Area 9 towns. We have witnessed over the past year the development of Darien's government access channel from non-existence to an outstanding operation. This extraordinary feat was accomplished in large part to the tremendous effort of the Darien ANCC representatives, Dave Dever and Jim Cameron. Darien's accomplishments should be a model for any town that has had a late start in bringing its channel up and running. A goal I would like for the Council this year is to reach 100% of the town channels carrying video of their board meetings.
In just the last year, we have witnessed a number of changes in personnel at Cablevision. Area Vice President, Deb Hutton, who was the Council's primary contact, has left Cablevision as well as Education Regional Manager Dominic Antonacci and Public Access Manager Jon Sherwood. Several months ago a new Government Affairs Manager, Jennifer Nacewicz was hired by Cablevision to assume the primary role as our Cablevision contact and we welcome her to her first ANCC Annual Meeting. We look forward in continuing to work together with Jennifer as we go forward.
I want to thank the members of the Council for your selfless service on the Council. It has been a privilege to work with so many of you for so many years. The more people that we can have working on the Council, the more effective we can be in addressing the many aspects that present themselves to a cable advisory council. I ask that the members from each Town where there is under-representation, contact their Mayors, First Selectmen and School Superintendents and request that they make appointments to fill those positions. This is a good time to do this, as the secretary will be mailing out appointment requests within the next few days.
Last year we elected a new Secretary, Carole Kleinfeld, as our longtime Secretary John Repicky stepped down and assumed the Assistant Secretary position. I am very pleased for the great job Carole has done over the past year. She has exceeded the high expectations I had for her. In his new role, John has continued to contribute invaluably to the Council. We are most fortunate that Carole and John do so much for ANCC. Don Saltzman has not lost a step in the tremendous job and effort he renders for ANCC. Don was at my side for every minute of franchise hearings over this past year and I am extremely grateful for this. Bob Atkinson has continued to be a reliable and capable Treasurer for the Council.
In addition to the officers, there are many rank and file members of the Council who contribute in a large way. When we work together to represent the interests of the subscribers and communities, we have shown that we can make a positive difference.