PEG Channels Try to Make Progress Toward Expanding Content Online, On Demand
Public, educational and governmental channels have a strong interest in expanding their programming through online and VOD platforms, but those capabilities must be complementary to providing content on pay TV, some PEG advocates said in interviews Friday. That day, a Comcast pilot program’s final progress report was posted in FCC docket 10-56, showing that from 2011 to 2014, websites providing PEG content online generated more than 1 million visits and 50,000 on- demand views by Comcast customers in the five pilot markets.
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The PEG community believes that it needs to follow the same models that their counterparts in the commercial broadcasting world do, said Best Best attorney Gerry Lederer, who represents municipalities in franchise negotiations with cable companies. “That is by making their programming available on all screens,” he said. “If that means folks want to find us online, then folks need to go there as well.” PEG channels would like to have their content available online, “but they'd like it in addition to, not in lieu of,” he said.
The real challenge for PEGs is accessing the content through VOD, said Bunnie Riedel, American Community Television executive director. The results of the Comcast report are helpful, she said: “To a certain extent, it says that Comcast sees the value of having PEG content on channels as well as in a VOD environment.” A Comcast spokeswoman had no comment for this story.
Comcast worked with communities in Fresno; Hialeah, Fla.; Peterborough, N.H.; Philadelphia; and Houston to test delivery of programming online and through on-demand capabilities as a result of its 2011 commitment to buy control of NBCUniversal, it said in a filing(http://bit.ly/1nx2UrS). “The trial communities have shown their support of the online platforms by creating engaging hyperlocal content, including almost 5,000 videos, thousands of blog posts, community calendar events and other local interest resources,” the final progress report said (http://bit.ly/1firMxr). They recognize the value of a PEG distribution platform “that can be accessed by anyone on the Internet and thus can serve not only to promote local programmers, but the community as well,” said Comcast. There’s a need for all platforms, Riedel said. People are choosing to watch TV and, from time to time, they're going to watch VOD, she said.
Local governments have been putting a lot of their content online through video-sharing services and then incorporating the videos of their meetings to their Web pages, said Michael Bradley, a Bradley Guzzetta attorney who represents local governments with cable franchising issues and PEG organizations. “It’s been somewhat of a challenge to have the cooperation of the cable industry,” he said. “We can’t have true video on demand unless the cable operator is cooperative and agrees to use a portion of their servers for PEG programming.” Comcast’s pilot program is showing that both online and VOD are being used from the PEG side, he added.
Community Media Access Collaborative in Fresno provides its programming on VOD and online as well as through Comcast and AT&T U-Verse’s traditional pay-TV channels, said Jerry Lee, CMAC executive director. “Some programs are watched by people in Los Angeles, so it’s good for our members to have that capability.” The channel operates under California’s Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act, which lets it use its franchise fees for capital expenditures, he said. The necessary equipment and software are covered under that, he said. Distribution through on-demand platforms should be complementary to content transmitted over cable, Lee said. “It’s just another option. This is another way for members to be able to share their content."
PEG advocates stressed the importance of keeping such content on cable channels. “There are a lot of folks that would like to move PEG programming online instead of being on TV or on cable, Lederer said. “Where everyone else is adding screens, some folks feel as though PEG ought to be limited to one.” That’s a functional disconnect because “that’s not what the rest of the basic tier is doing,” he said. “Comcast has been a pretty loyal supporter of PEG programming,” he said. “As a corporate entity, Comcast hasn’t sought to shirk it’s obligations under the Cable Act to provide PEG programming and PEG support.” Some difficulties stemmed from AT&T’s Channel 99, which put some PEG networks as subchannels that some said were hard to find, and some state legislation called for PEG fee elimination in the name of broadband deployment, he said. “Our point is that if you look at those states that eliminated PEG and PEG support, there’s no greater broadband deployment in those states than there are in states where PEG is still a robust offering with full support by all multichannel video service providers,” Lederer said.
With PEG channels, “you're going to have higher quality video and there’s still a real benefit to the community for people to have access to video equipment that’s used to produce that high-quality video,” said Bradley. “With a growing elderly population and low-income populations, there’s still a large segment of people who don’t have access to either video on demand or online content."
PEG channels want to do the same thing other channels do, Riedel said. “You don’t find ESPN only on demand,” she said. “The challenge is whether or not the cable operators will allow that to happen.” That’s “playing out in places where franchise agreements are being negotiated,” said Riedel. “Whether or not we'll see that is anybody’s guess.”