February 1, 2022. WCM begins circulating draft PEG legislation to stakeholders

Wisconsin Community Media began circulating draft legislation to stakeholders last week to get feedback on a bill that would improve conditions for PEG television channels on Video Service Provider (VSP) systems.  

• The bill changes the relationship between a Video Service Provider (VSP) and a Municipality, requiring VSPs (who now pay a maximum 4% fee to municipalities rather than a maximum 5% as allowed by federal law) to provide more in-kind support, specifically for transmission equipment and lines leading to a cable system headend, while at the same time, capping what they would be required to pay.

• The bill also prohibits VSPs from degrading the quality of the signal that local program originators provide.  In short, PEG channels would be required to be carried in HD.

• The bill beefs up consumer protection provisions, not only for subscribers, but for the first time, requires VSPs to be responsive to complaints lodged by PEG channel originators – PEG media centers.

• The bill moves the responsibility for enforcing PEG provisions from the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP).

• It requires VSPs, under all circumstances, to carry PEG channels on a tier most subscribers receive.

• Finally, if there is a disagreement between a VSP and a municipality or a state agency and it goes to court, a “court shall award a party entitled to a remedy costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.” 

The draft is being circulated to several local municipal officials, DFI, which currently has responsibility for enforcing most of the law regarding VSPs, and the DATCP.  Several state legislators also have a copy of the preliminary draft legislation.

While the 2021-2022 session is quickly drawing to a close, WCM is excited about bringing these issues before stakeholders and beginning a discussion that could lead to action in the next session. 

September 21, 2021. Two cities are back “on the air” after Charter Spectrum finds used equipment

Great News!  Both Rice Lake Community Media and Oshkosh Media are back on Charter Spectrum Cable after a more than two week outage.  According to James Wyngaard, Director of Rice Lake Media, Charter Spectrum was able to find a used part for the Rice Lake encoder and Jake Timm, Operations Manager of Oshkosh Media, said the company located a used encoder that enabled both of its channels to go back up this afternoon. 

WCM is still hoping to see Green Bay’s Fox Valley channel and its city channel back on the line-up soon under new management.  The City of De Pere is willing to take over the Green Bay City Channel, which means residents of Green Bay will be seeing De Pere’s city channel that will carry the Green Bay City Council meeting.  Oshkosh Media will manage the Fox Valley Channel.

Wisconsin Community Media is working on legislation to address outages and HD carriage.  “WCM is worried about the aging equipment Charter Spectrum has in place in PEG stations across the state.  Which PEG station will go down next? Wisconsin needs better enforcement tools and it needs to require video service providers to truly serve their communities by carrying PEG channels in HD.  SD is last century technology.”

According to the statute (66.0420), the Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) has rulemaking and enforcement power over nearly all of the law governing video service providers, but according to DFI, it never takes any enforcement action because the statute was written without any enforcement tools (except an extreme remedy, taking a company to court).  Because it lacks enforcement tools, DFI does not accept complaints either.  DFI refers all complaints to the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), which has an online complaint form. 

While DATCP cannot enforce the main statute, there is another statute (100.209) that is designed to protect subscribers.  Under this statute, DATCP can order rebates to subscribers and institute penalties against video service providers.  WCM does not know if it has exercised these powers.

September 13, 2021. Charter Spectrum tells three cities it could be six months before their PEG channels are back on the air; Green Bay gives up channels

Three cities in Wisconsin are without their PEG cable access channels due to cable company technical issues.  The City of Green Bay, the City of Rice Lake and the City of Oshkosh are all off the air on Charter Spectrum systems and the company says it could be five or six months before they’re back up. 

The City of Green Bay was the first to lose its two channels last spring.  But Charter Spectrum failed to take quick action.  “I provided the company with the information it requested to get new transmission equipment, but I never heard back from them,” said Mike Hronek, IT Director for the City of Green Bay.  Charter Spectrum finally told the city that it could be months before it would get the channel back up on the air. 

In Rice Lake, the outage occurred the Friday before Labor Day after Charter Spectrum moved its hubsite from one building to another.  “It was supposed to be a brief outage, but when they attempted to reconnect our city’s cable channel, it didn’t come back on,” said James Wyngaard, Director of Rice Lake Media.  “Now Charter is telling me it could be as long as five months before our channel is back and they want to know why I just don’t use the web instead of Cable TV.  Well, we do use the web but a lot of our residents like to watch our local coverage on cable.  As cable customers, I think they have a right to receive the service they signed up for.”

In Oshkosh, a video encoder that carries the signal from Oshkosh Media to Charter’s head end failed over the Labor Day weekend. Both Life TV (public access) and Gov TV (government access) are unavailable to Charter Spectrum Cable viewers.  Oshkosh was given a timeline of four to six months, but the reason why the process will take this long remains unclear. “Charter claims the request to replace the broken encoder has to work its way through several departments,” said Jake Timm, Operations Coordinator for Oshkosh Media.

“This is simply not OK,” said Mary Cardona, Executive Director of Wisconsin Community Media.  “Charter Spectrum seems to think it is above the law — it certainly isn’t scrambling to get the PEG channels back on the air. While Wisconsin’s cable franchise law is not strong, it does require cable companies to transmit PEG programming and resolve outages quickly.” 

Green Bay’s Channels will be taken over by other cities. So far one result of the outage has been the City of Green Bay deciding to give up cable channel 2, which can be seen throughout the Fox Valley and cable channel 4, which serves the city.  A quote of $10,000 to fix both the transmission equipment and a satellite downlink the city had used to obtain additional programming was enough to make the city think again.  At one time, Time Warner (who held the franchise prior to Charter Spectrum) used to provide the region with video production services, but in 2014 the company decided to close its studio and it asked the City of Green Bay to take over responsibility for the channels.  Since then, the City of Green Bay IT department has accepted council meetings from Neenah, Fox Crossing and Appleton and played them on the channels along with its own council meeting, but the city never developed its own production capability.   

Despite deciding to give up the channels, the City of Green Bay recognized their value and with the help of WCM, began searching for a city to turn them over to.  Oshkosh Media had just agreed to manage the Fox Valley Channel, channel 2, when it lost its capability to transmit programming.  The City of De Pere, which has a robust television production department may be taking over channel 4.  Simply put, Green Bay viewers would begin seeing De Pere channel 4.  De Pere has also tentatively agreed to carry some of Green Bay’s government meetings, restoring this service and transparency to the Green Bay area.

“I am very pleased that Wisconsin Community Media’s strong network enabled our members in Green Bay, Oshkosh and De Pere to get in touch with each other and work out a plan to ensure the local channels in the Fox Valley area are not lost,” said Cardona. 

What you can do. If you live in Rice Lake, Oshkosh or Green Bay and are a cable subscriber, WCM urges you to do two things:  call Charter Spectrum and complain that you are not receiving your local cable channel and then immediately follow up with a complaint to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP).  Be sure to tell DATCP you have lodged a complaint with Charter Spectrum already.  You will need to use a telecommunication complaint form.  The easiest way to navigate to the form is through the WCM website here.

“Cable television has a huge viewership,” said Cardona.  “Nearly half of all households subscribe to cable and it could be higher in some cities.  Those who want to watch local television on cable should be able to do that.  After all, it’s the law.  I think there’s a big double standard operating.  There are some people who discount local speech as being of little importance and some who discount the importance of the public having a channel on cable.  Yet I can’t imagine Charter Spectrum telling CNN, “We’re taking you off the air for six months, but – hey – it’s no big deal to be on Cable TV and besides, you can use your website.”

January 24, 2020. WCM Unveils Bill To End 2nd Class Status for PEG Channels

Wisconsin Community Media has unveiled its legislative proposal that would end the 2nd class status PEG channels have on cable television systems.

The bill is now being circulated to members, legislators, and others for feedback. Support for this bill is bipartisan, however, as of January 15, we have not found a Republican legislator willing to be a lead author.

Charter Communications has rejected legislator requests to meet and discuss this bill. Charter, known commonly as Spectrum, serves about 90% of the state.

If passed by the legislature, the bill would require cable companies to:

1. Put PEG channels on a tier that is viewable by 100% of cable subscribers, not 50% as under current law.

2. Allow PEG channels to be seen on the Electronic Program Guide with their program schedules.

3. Carry PEG channels in HD if the channel’s programming is produced in HD. Currently no transmission standard exists.

4. Pay for constructing any transmission lines that communities need to transmit programs from places like city halls and high schools to the cable system and require cable operators to complete work within a reasonable timeframe. Cable operators are sole source vendors and currently name their price and the timetable for work.

5. Pay for the transmission equipment PEG channels need to connect to cable systems. Charter/Spectrum’s method of transmission is so out of date, viable equipment is nearly impossible to find and purchase. Operators decide on the transmission method, they should also pay for all related equipment.

6. Identify and provide contact information for a service technician familiar with PEG channel transmission issues in a timely manner.

7. Institute penalties for not resolving PEG channel signal problems within a reasonable period of time.

Cable systems just received a tax break from the state legislature. In 2020, video service providers will be paying $5 million less to cities and in 2021 and in years going forward, they will pay $10 million less annually. They can use this generous windfall to upgrade their systems and improve the customer experience for local programming.

WCM has released this Summary of the Bill. If you would like to receive a copy of the legislation, please email Mary Cardona at exec@wisconsincommunitymedia.com.