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from: Great Lakes IT Report

Public access programmers, AT&T feud over U-Verse carriage
Posted on 8/21/2007 5:29:48 PM

A group backing local cable access media Tuesday announced that it had filed a complaint against AT&T Inc. with the Michigan Public Service Commission for failing to carry their programming.

The Michigan Chapter of the National Alliance for Community Media filed the complaint Aug. 14, saying that AT&T is now offering its new U-Verse video service to portions of 65 southeast Michigan communities -- without including any community programming, and has missed a state deadline to do so.

However, the MPSC Tuesday dismissed the complaint. Staff attorney Margaret Wallin said the association lacks standing to bring the complaint because it wasn't a party that was actually harmed by the alleged actions. Also, she said, the complaint alleges possible future violations of state law, not current violations.

ACM's attorney, Jon D. Kreucher, pledged the complaint would be refiled quickly by one of the cities involved, and said that "it seems AT&T is trying to fight this case on procedural grounds rather than argue the merits."

ACM, which repreents public, education and government access programmers, alleges that AT&T was required under Michigan’s new “Uniform Video Services Local Franchising Act” to carry the programming on its U-Verse networks, but hasn't so far.

ACM members assert that they transmit more than one million hours of programming to Michigan’s residents each year, including Amber Alerts, hazardous waste material releases, and meetings of local governments, and reports on community events and activities.

Kreucher argued that AT&T is creating two "digital neighborhoods" on U-Verse -- one for broadcasters and cable netwroks, another a “digital desert” reserved exclusively for PEG programmers.

Michigan ACM president Mark F. Monk said AT&T is requiring community access programmers to "degrade their picture quality before it is received by customers. Unlike with broadcasters, we have to share one channel position with tens and maybe hundreds of other programmers. And unlike with broadcasters, customers won’t be able to find specific PEG programming through use of AT&T’s primary interactive programming guide.”

Those placed in AT&T’s “digital desert,” according to Monk, will literally be “buried below so many menus that a customer will be left feeling frustrated and helpless when searching for any particular PEG programming.”

AT&T spokesman Joe Steele said that the complaint is baseless.

"AT&T is continuing to work directly with communities through techical issues in communities in whcih we provide service," Steele said.

Steele said AT&T isn't asking for a degraded signal from PEG providers, but instead is asking them to provide their signals to AT&T's all-Internet Protocol network in IP format.

"Currently there are no PEG providers who are capable of providing their content to AT&T in IP format, which U-Verse requires," Steele said.

As for the accusation of burying content under layers of menus, Steele said: "I don't think anyone from the Alliance of Communtiy Media has seen our PEG product. In general we think it will be convenient for viewers to have all their PEG channels in one location. And they won't be limited to watching just the PEG content from the community in which they live. They can watch from the community where they may work or a child goes to school. We're confident that our quality is excellent and our viewers will enjoy watching PEG content over U-Verse."