On Thursday  September 19th, the California Public Utilities Commission will be holding a public participation hearing on video service providers (like Comcast, Charter-Spectrum and Cox). Due to a law passed in 2021 that modffied industry-written state franchising rules for the first time in fifteen years, the Commision can impose customer service standards on these companies. 

This is a big deal because cable companies like Comcast have literally been in last place for crappy customer service for years on end. 

We know you have stories about cable broadband service from these companies including deceptive pricing, lack of affordability, redlining practices, installation abuse, data limits. 

Please call in and tell them to the CPUC. You may not get another chance for fifteen more years. 

On September 19th – there are two virtual hearings
Afternoon hearing: 1pm to 3pm
Evening hearing: 5pm to 7pm

Telephone Call-In Number: 1-800-857-1917, passcode: 6032788#

In addition to your own personal horror stories, media advocates can also help our friends in the public cable channel community. Public and educational channels (public access channels) are some of the biggest victims of cable company abuse. 

Although the channels are federally-mandated community benefits, the cable companies take advantage of loopholes in the law to transmit public channel broadcasts, which include government meetings, public events and community generated content, in lower resolution standard definition. The companies literally crunch and compress high definition material to transmit it in lower quality. This results in preposterous broadcasts like the black letterboxing seen in the image above (thank you to Marin Community Media for providing the illustration). 

This two-tier treatment that marginalizes community television and renders it difficult to watch is ridiculous and needs to be stopped now. 

Thanks for reading and we hope to hear your voice on September 19th!