Protect Community Media From Cable Lies

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Protect Community Media From Cable Lies

We need your help right now for community media.

Cable industry lobbyists have swamped the state capital with lies and distortions to stop much-needed changes in the discriminatory treatment of public content on cable.

They want to keep on degrading the signals of public community benefit TV channels to outdated technology that makes Zoom captions illegible and compresses images so they are indecipherable. By down-converting a high definition signal to a standard definition signal, up to 80% of the picture information is discarded. This is ridiculous in 2022 and will get a lot more ridiculous as time goes by.

Industry has somehow convinced the state Assembly that providing functional and robust community benefits on cable systems will break the bank, although 20 other states already have high definition public channels, including the cities of Denver, Chicago, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Portland and Seattle. Californians already pay some of the highest average cable bills in the country.

We only have two weeks to set the record straight and combat the lies or this modest reform dies.

Send this myth and facts email to the 37 Assembly Democrats who bought the cable lies hook, line and sinker, and shamefully abstained.

They handed a big victory to cable industry lobbyists over community media, but we can make it a temporary victory with a second vote by the end of May.

Help us protect vulnerable Californians who are hearing-impaired, immobile, or otherwise dependent on their televisions for public content, including safety and emergency information, and ensure that public interest content doesn't get second class treatment - forever.

Let's use people power to break through the lies.

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Take Action

Abstain Votes on AB 2635 5/2/22

Subject: Cable Lies Hurting Californians: Don't Fail Us

Message:

The May 2nd failure on the Assembly floor of AB 2635 was abominable and must be reversed. Several false statements have been disseminated by the cable industry. It is necessary to set the record straight so this good and worthwhile bill can continue progressing through the Legislature.

Myth: The cable operator is going to have to build new fiber lines to transport the signal to the cable head end.
Fact: Wrong. Fiber lines are already in place to the cable head end in most communities. Moreover, any PEG centers that are not currently connected via fiber can stream HD content to the head end via the Internet as public channels do every day to stream their content on Youtube. AB 2635 would not require the installation of one single new fiber line.

Myth: Expensive new equipment will be required at all cable head ends.
Fact: Wrong. Cable head ends serve multiple channels most of which are already broadcast in HD and already have HD encoding equipment in place. Californians pay some of the highest average costs for cable service in the country. and any equipment pass-throughs would add virtually nothing to a monthly cable bill.

Myth: There are ongoing monthly costs to transmit HD public interest channels
Fact: Wrong. There are no ongoing monthly costs to transmit HD public interest channels. Comcast subscribers in Gresham, OR pay exactly the same each month for 6 HD public channels as subscribers in Beaverton, OR pay each month for no HD public channel.

Myth: Everybody has broadband and therefore public interest (PEG) channels on cable aren’t needed.
Fact: Wrong. Everybody doesn't have broadband. That is why the Legislature allocated 9 billion dollars last year to expand broadband. Some people don't have service, some people can't afford the service they do have, some people have data caps, some people live in large households with multiple devices and cannot freely stream video, some people are elderly and not comfortable using the Internet.

Myth: It's not a routine cable procedure to broadcast public content in HD
Fact: Wrong. HD public channels are in 20 states and major cities including Denver, Baltimore, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Las Vegas, Portland, Philadelphia and Seattle and their residents pay lower monthly cable bills than Californians.

Cable lies should not carry the day. Community benefits should be functional, useful, robust and delivered in modern technology.

By no stretch of the imagination should this be controversial.

Don't let us down. Vote yes on AB 2635 on reconsideration.

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