October 19, 2004

Board of Estimates, Mayor to Consider Fate of Baltimore’s Public Access TV: Mayor O’Malley’s Own Cable Experts Say Better PATV Provisions are Needed, but Comcast is a Major Contributor to His Campaign.

WHAT: Public Hearing before the Board of Estimates on Proposed Contract with Comcast

WHEN: Wednesday, Oct. 20, 9:00 AM

WHERE: City Hall, 100 N. Holliday St.


BALTIMORE, MD—The Board of Estimates, in which Mayor O’Malley and his appointees hold the majority of the seats, is scheduled to consider the City’s proposed cable franchise agreement Wednesday morning. Under the agreement’s terms, Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, would not dedicate any operating funds to public access television (PATV). Advocacy groups such as Baltimore Grassroots Media (BGM) and the Mayor’s own cable policy advisors are urging the City to hold out for better terms.

“The hearing will give the Mayor the opportunity to put the needs and interests of his constituents ahead of the interests of a cable giant that happens to contribute to his campaign,” said Amanda Bowers, a BGM spokesperson. “On Wednesday, we will learn who Mayor O’Malley really represents.”

The Sun reported on October 14 that “O’Malley’s administration supports the deal” with Comcast. However, Marilyn Harris-Davis, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Cable & Communications, told The Baltimore Chronicle in September that it would be “a good thing” if the City required Comcast “to give us more money”—though officially the MOCC recommended approving the contract. Also, members of the Mayor’s own cable advisory commission said at their last public meeting that the contract should be rejected because of its inadequate cable access provisions.

The Baltimore Chronicle also reported that the City’s Law Department, acting on behalf of the Mayor’s Office, made no attempt to negotiate for PATV operating funds during the franchise negotiations with Comcast. (See baltimorechronicle.com/090904BradCarlton.html.) Yet the cable contracts in many other cities provide for public access operating expenses. Washington DC’s new contract with Comcast dedicates 1% of the local cable revenues specifically for public access operating costs, plus another third of a percent for capital costs. Montgomery County—whose County Executive, Doug Duncan, is Mayor O’Malley’s strongest potential challenger for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination—receives millions of dollars annually for public access operational expenses from the cable company.

“Why isn’t the City trying to build on the recent successful contracts in other cities to make Baltimore the new standard?” asked Mike Shea, a volunteer for public access Channel 5. “Does the Mayor ‘believe’ that the people of Baltimore deserve less from the cable company than the people of DC and other cities?”

O’Malley has received more than $8,000 in campaign contributions from Comcast and its executives. City Council President Sheila Dixon and City Comptroller Joan Pratt, who fill the seats on the Board of Estimates not appointed by the Mayor, have received more than $4,000 and $1,000, respectively, from Comcast and its executives.

One of the Mayor’s appointees to the Board of Estimates, City Solicitor Ralph S. Tyler, told the Sun that “if the bill fails, a federal regulatory board could force the city to adopt a contract that provides even less funding for cable access channels.”

That argument is a “red herring,” according to James Horwood, an attorney with the Spiegel & McDiarmid law firm and one of the nation’s foremost experts in telecommunications laws. “There’s no reason to rush into something that doesn’t seem to be good,” Horwood said. “Certainly if the City has a needs assessment showing community needs that aren’t met, then you shouldn't do worse. You should be able to do better.”

The City did in fact commission a Community Needs Assessment survey, which demonstrated that Baltimore’s cable needs include 10% of the digital bandwidth (unprovided for in the contract) and sustained funding for all three cable access entities, sometimes known as “PEG,” which includes the government cable access and education access. The “P” stands for “people,” or “public access.” Currently, only the government access station has sustained funding. Public access has no funding at all.

Members of the O’Malley administration have publicly stated that a public access operator could raise much of its budget through fundraising. However, according to Dr. Jonathan Shorr, chairman of the Mayor’s own Cable Advisory Commission, no public access station in the country has ever been able to rely on fundraising for more than 15% of their annual budget.

Not only does the proposed contract leave public access without operating funds, it allows the Mayor’s Office sole discretion for the dispersal of capital funds to all three PEG entities. Under the current agreement, the Mayor’s office directs all PEG money to the government access station (which has a $1.1 million annual budget) and zero dollars to public access, despite the money it receives for PEG from its Baltimore Harbor cable contract with Flight Systems and the leasing of another cable access channel.

The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 allows a local government to deny renewal of a cable franchise if the cable company does not “meet the future cable-related community needs and interests, taking into account the cost of meeting such needs and interests.”

Baltimore Grassroots Media believes that the proposed contract does not meet this standard and calls on the City to reject it because it:

- does not allocate specific funding for public access TV

- allocates an insufficient amount of capital funds for all of P,E, and G

- provides no money for operating expenses

- leaves cable subscribers to bear the cost of PEG rather than Comcast of Baltimore

- reduces the number of PEG channels

- would not be renegotiated for 12 years, too long a period in an era of rapid technology changes

Comcast can afford to do better for the people of Baltimore. Comcast of Baltimore has earned $270 million in gross revenue from cable services alone since July 2001. The company has made over $100 million during that time through its use of Baltimore’s public easements, and should be obligated to provide Baltimore’s communities full, yearly renewable PATV funding.

Public access television allows any citizen to exercise their free speech rights through access to channels devoted specifically for that purpose. It provides training and jobs for people interested in communications and technology fields, and it provides a healthy outlet for our youth to express themselves and learn valuable skills.

“Mayor O’Malley often says that the Baltimore is the ‘Greatest City in America,’ said Bowers. “Doesn’t the best city deserve the best public access resources opportunities for its constituents? We will find out Wednesday whether the Mayor thinks so.”
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