Spotlight on the Region

Last modified Wednesday, October 15, 2008 16:24

Spotlight on the Region will highlight an issue every quarter, showing how one of our member governments is making a difference. The Local Government Services Division wants to showcase noteworthy projects, programs or administrative processes, while assisting with solutions for success.

Issue:

According to a September 2008 report from the Congressional Research Service (PDF): “Public, educational, and governmental (PEG) access channels are those cable television channels that are set aside for use by the general public, by local schools, colleges, and universities, and by elements of local government. PEG access channels are not mandated by federal law. But the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 amended the Communications Act to explicitly allow cable franchising authorities to require cable operators to set aside channel capacity for PEG use and to provide adequate facilities or financial support for those channels. These PEG provisions have been a primary vehicle for fostering the long-standing U.S. media policy goal of localism on cable systems.”

In recent years the idea of “localism” has come under duress by changing technology and changing state and federal laws. Over 20 states, including Georgia, have passed laws that allow cable systems to obtain statewide franchising licenses, bypassing the traditional system of local negotiation. While there are positives and negatives to this new system, it is a well documented reality that the new law is negatively affecting the accessibility of traditional PEG access channels.

Though the problem is concentrated at the local level, the additional stress of changes in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules are affecting the requirements on cable to help fund PEG facilities. This has brought the issue to the attention of the U.S. Congress, which recently held hearings to address the issue.   In these hearings the consensus from all parties was that the existence and easy availability of PEG access channels is in the best interest of the local community. Yet, the abuses in local granting of franchises by some local governments have caused a needed correction in the system that all parties must accommodate. Watch excerpts from the hearings.

Solution Strategies

While appeals and political lobbying attempt to soften the blow of the changes in the system, local governments must face a new reality.  The changes in the system demand new innovations in how local governments deliver their communication products to the community.

One of the most accepted and easily transitioned alternatives is webcasting. Many of the local governments in the region have supplemented cable production with online archiving for many years. Webcasting and online archiving of local government meetings has many advantages besides communication production. The system can also facilitate records management and respond to requests for information.

This quarter, ARC is focusing the “Spotlight on the Region” on one of our member governments that has excelled in this new medium.

Spotlight Program:

The Atlanta region is fortunate to have many high-quality PEG systems produced by our member governments. Henry County, GA, the current “Spotlight Community”, has found a suitable alternative to cable-only based PEG programming with Henry TV14.

Henry County Communications Director, Julie Ernst, recently commented: “We are most proud of the foundation that we put in place for Henry TV14. Rather than begin our new venture with aging technology, we decided to operate within a tapeless (digital storage based) environment. The Network Attached Storage (NAS) provides us with the flexibility and expandability needed to meet the demands of an ever-changing technology-based arena.”

We at ARC are proud to recognize the accomplishments of Henry TV14 through sharing their program with the entire region.
Watch the Henry County Online Video player

Program History

An attempt to make government more “transparent and accessible” to the citizens, is how Henry County Communications Director, Julie Ernst, describes the beginnings of Henry TV14. That attempt turned in to a successful reality in April 2007 when the Henry TV14 studio launched its first programming. For the first year, commission meetings and television programming were not carried live online. They were recorded and post produced before being aired only on Charter cable. “We had the capability to go live at any time…but were able to essentially triple our audience overnight due to the greater number of Henry County citizens that had internet access as compared to cable.” May 2008 marked the first month that all 4 county board meetings, candidate forums, and town hall meetings went live on both cable and webcast. 
Read the Article in Government Video Magazine (PDF)

Future of the Program

The next step for Henry TV14 is to refine production quality, variety, and efficiency through facility upgrades for both television and online. “We are in the process of constructing a studio to expand our programming mix” commented Ms. Ernst. The new studio will allow an expansion of program variety, such as the addition of a weekly news cast and an interview-based talk show. So look for Henry TV14 to continue striving to bring better user friendly information access to their local constituency and expand the audience they so quickly achieved.

Advice from the Spotlight Community

Our advice to other communities looking to implement cable and online video programming is to pace yourself. We were fortunate in that we have been able to gradually ramp up our programming, supplementing with special videos, to ensure quality productions. Such insistence on quality every step along the way serves to compliment the message and enhance our ability to accomplish the goals of transparency and accessibility in government. Also, we learned the hard way that the new technology is great, but it is wise to build in some redundancies or emergency backups and sometimes, the most effective solutions are the least expensive.
        -Julie Ernst, Henry County Communications Director

If your community would like to participate or if you have a suggestion for the January 2009 spotlight, please contact Drew Nichols at dnichols@atlantaregional.com or (404) 463-3231.