Red Bank TV

During sporting events the television broadcasters all like to take time out to do what the call a “Game Reset”, it’s a quick way of recapping the events of the game and getting new viewers up to date.  Now would seem like a good time to do something similar here on the blog.  So without further ado I present RedBankTv.org’s blog reset:

Local Franchise Summary – Red Bank has approved Verizon’s application to operate a cable TV franchise and Verizon’s application has been forwared onto the NJ State Board of Public Utilities for final approval; after gaining the BPU approval Verizion will enter franchise negotiations with Red Bank.

State and Federal Franchise Regulation – Verizon has spent untold millions of dollars lobbying for new legislation at the State and Federal level that removes the requirement to work with local municipalities on cable franchises.  What has been the result of their big spending?  You guessed it; New Jersey’s legislature has passed a state wide cable franchise bill and it is now awaiting Gov. Corzine’s signature.  With pockets as deep as Verizon’s why should they stop at the state level?  Well, they haven’t and their lobbying efforts are paying off big at the federal level as well.  Steadily moving through the House and Senate are bills that would remove the need to work with towns or states on franchises.  The federal legislation looks set to pass and, depending on just how much Verizon wants to spend, it looks likely to pass in the few remaining sessions of this year.

A La Carte cable plans – Senator John McCain has introduced a bill calling for A La Carte cable plans, the FCC supports Sen. McCain’s bill and a Verizon spokesman was recently quoted as saying that A La Carte cable plans could offer them a competitive advantage to other cable companies.  That all sounds good but realistically no real progress has been made on this issue.

Municipal WiFi – It seems to me that the most interesting item to follow regarding Verizon and municipal WiFi’s has to be what is going on in Summit NJ.  Summit sent their RFI to Verizon and responses to the RFI are due in the coming week.  I’ve been corresponding with someone involved in the Summit project and I hope that she will keep me up to date with their progress.  If Verizon responds to the RFI it should tell us what tack they will be taking to discourage municipalities from getting into the WiFi game.

Net Neutrality – This topic has been all over the news as of late.  There is a continuing ill fated effort to put federal legislation in place to guarantee Net Neutrality.  The reality is that the telcos lobbying machine is too powerful for Congress to do anything other than pay lip service to Net Neutrality legislation.  I continue to advocate that efforts be made to raise Net Neutrality as a local issue and to tie it to Cable TV franchises.  So far there has been little reaction to my method.

Posted by Tom at 06:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

A La Carte Cable means you get to pick and choose which television channels you want to subscribe to.  These plans are proven (by an FCC study) to help make cable more affordable for people with limited budgets and help bring educational programming into more households.   I’ve found some more A La Carte news items and I want to share them with you.

Yesterday Arizona Senator John McCain introduced new legislation into the Senate.  His Act is titled: The "Consumers Having Options in Cable Entertainment (CHOICE) Act of 2006 .  An article about the bill can be found on the website DailyIPTV.  The article describes Senator McCain’s bill as: “intended to give consumers more flexibility and choice in selecting channels from cable providers and is also intended to make the market more attractive to alternative providers and for IPTV by increasing the flexibility of the TV market throughout the US.”

Senator McCain’s press release says: "For almost 10 years, I have supported giving consumers the ability to buy cable channels individually, also known as a la carte, to provide consumers with more control over the viewing options in their home and their monthly cable bill," he added. "Cable companies have resisted this and have continued to give consumers all the 'choice' of a North Korean election ballot."

Federal Communications Commision chairman Kevin Martin is also quoted in the DailyIPTV article.  Mr. Martin supports Senator McCain bill and says: “I support Sen. McCain's efforts to increase cable competition and choice for consumers, as well as to remove regulations that keep potential competitors out of the video business."

The telcos are spending a huge about of money to remove the need to work with municipalities and states to gain approval to operate national cable TV franchises.  Senator McCain’s Act is reassuring; it says to me that even if we can not get Verizon to address what we feel is best for Red Bank then there are people in the Senate who are looking out for the issues that concern small towns like ours.

Posted by Tom at 06:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since it is a topic that doesn't seem to be getting as much press as Net Neutrality lately, I figured I'd post a link to Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam's column published yesterday.

 Here is a snippit from Mr. Beam's column:

''A la carte" is an interesting issue, because it aligns right-wing ''family-friendly" religious nuts with cranky, cheeseparing pseudo-libertarians like myself. The ''family" types want to buy just the channels that show ''Herbie the Love Bug: Fast and Spurious"; I just want to save a buck. Who's helping us fight the power? Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin has made noises about favoring a la carte but seems reluctant to push the pedal to the metal. Populist presidential aspirant Senator John McCain is said to be cooking up some legislation that would impose some a la carte pricing on Big Cable, but it hasn't appeared yet.

Here is a link to his column on boston.com: I don't want my MTV 

Posted by Tom at 06:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)

*** Update - This post is actually from December. I only came across it today. 

David H. Deans, the Senior Partner of Deans & Associates, and the founder of GeoActive Group USA, has a short post on his blog today including a quote from a Verizon Spokesman.  Here is a short quote from his blog:

But both carriers(AT&T & Verizon) seem quite amenable to à la carte pricing, even as the cable and satellite operators fight tooth-and-nail to nip the idea in the bud. “There is some feeling that this may be a differentiator for Verizon or AT&T,” said Verizon spokesperson Eric Rabe. “This could be something that either company adopts to differentiate themselves, but we are still examining our options in this area.”

This is the kind of thinking you would expect to see from a well run company.  I hope to hear more about this and I'll try to contact Mr. Deans and/or Mr. Rabe. 

Posted by Tom at 08:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here is a link to an article that was published on April 23 talking about A La Carte cable services.

Here is a quote from Mike Mcdaniel's article:
Powerful people in Washington, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin, believe a la carte cable would not only trim a subscriber's monthly bill - currently averaging between $48 and $49 in Houston, according to Time Warner - but also allow consumers to decide which channels are allowed in their homes.

McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, plans to introduce a bill this week that would free new cable competitors from local franchising regulations. In the House, U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) has said he will offer legislation allowing consumers to choose the channels they want.

Posted by Tom at 05:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)