Legislators consider public access television funding

This recent report on funding public and government access channels on cable from Wisconsin Public Radio's Shawn Johnson caught my attention (a print version is available here).

Not long ago, the state legislature passed laws deregulating cable television. In the past, cable providers have had to set aside channels on their systems for public and local government use and provide some operational funding. That requirement is set to expire in about a year. Sun Prairie Democrat Gary Hebl has authored a bill that would allow communities to fund these access operations by collecting one-percent from cable subscribers' bills.

My start in television was through public access about twenty-five years ago. We would shoot in the now defunct Betamax format using a shoulder mounted camera attached to what was essentially a VCR in a bag. It took some commitment, but the ability to actually make television was exciting and empowering.

Of course, a lot has changed, and that is the cable industry's argument against this mandate. Back then, cable was more or less a monopoly without the competition of satellite and other digital providers. Because a satellite dish doesn't need government authority to bring television wiring to your house, they are not subject to the same access demands local governments had been able to make to the cable providers.

And user technology has changed even more. Those clunky cameras of the past are no match for a palm-sized digital recorder capable of capturing full HD video. Video that can be edited on a laptop and seen by a potentially world-wide audience on YouTube or other video-sharing site.

So those barriers to making television have been substantially lowered by technology. But when I look back on how I first learned about video production, it wasn't just through access to the technology--thrilling though that was--but also from really good mentoring from the head of my town's access channel, the person who also gave me my first job in television. That's something that no law can ensure.