CTN: You're What's On

It's hard to believe that there was a time when cable television didn't rule the earth. Indeed, just a few decades ago the idea of cable television was in its infancy. When it finally began its ascension, it was governed by hundreds of different cable companies, (over 20 in Michigan alone) rather than by the exclusive circle of titans, such as Comcast, who today dominate the market.

"The idea of community access in Ann Arbor first came from two groups of activists [Media Access Center and Community Cable Coalition] who wanted to empower locals with free access to the media and the ability to get their messages out," says Ralph Salmeron, CTN's manager.

Traditionally, television had remained the province of commercial and government sanctioned interests. Cable technology changed the playing field. The Ann Arbor groups were inspired by similar-minded community activists in New York (who was pioneering public access at the time), and successfully lobbied for a designated cabel channel to permit locals to effectively exercise their First Amendment rights and expressions.

Today, with four local community channels and a brand new facility, Ann Arbor's Community Television Network (CTN) celebrates its 35^th anniversary, making it one of the five oldest cable access centers in the country. Pretty impressive when you consider that there are currently over 2,000 centers nationwide.

After its inception in 1973, Ann Arbor's ascendancy into public access was swift. Its first cable access channel, educational in focus, was followed by a second only a few months later -- this one providing public access. A third channel followed in 1981, focusing on municipal matters. Meanwhile, communities across the country were fighting for their own slice of the cable pie. In the mid-eighties, the federal government mandated that cable companies pay "franchise fees" to the communities in which they were operating.

This paved the way fro CTN to add a fourth channel in the early 1990s. Then, in 1997, realizing that Ann Arbor residents weren't as aware of community goings-on as they might be, CTN expanded its government channel and started producing its own programs. Locally created half-hour shows like news magazine "FYI," and the eponymously named "Conversations," were born. The purpose, says Salmeron, was to create something that was distinctly Ann Arbor.

"It was going so well," says Salmeron, "that we decided to rebrand our fourth channel City TV (channel 19). We developed additional programming like shows for seniors, a live call-in program, and a lot more."

Vox populi

According to Communications Unit Manager for the City of Ann Arbor, Lisa Wondrash, the driving force of CTN's success over the years as been its "continued focus on being a local media resource for residents." For instance, she points out that there has been no other media outlet that has provided Ann Arbor residents with a look at their locally elected representatives.

What it lacks in sitcom laugh tracks and gratuitous explosions, CTN makes up for in unconventional programming. It's not as if you'll find this stuff anywhere else: a local conspiracy theorist presents his evidence that, amongst other things, there was never a lunar landing on "Forbidden Knowledge;" a long time sufferer of MS, Tom Bayer, regularly conducts probing discussions of disability concerns with local doctors and guests via the "hotline studio" with the assistance of cable commission chair, Barbara Clarke.

To say that some of the programming is novel would be an understatement.

Still, the diversity and locality of CTN's voices speak to its greatest strength. Aside for U-M football, the chance that Ann Arbor residents will appear in a cable broadcast are pretty slim. Perhaps that's why interest in video production continues to grow among locals. Every week there are over 40 programs from Ann Arbor producers, and each monthly preview session (cost-free prerequisites for taking production courses and borrowing equipment) draws at least 30 new filmmakers.

A sampling of the programs reveals a wide variety of topics: There's Ecosense, which focuses on the local environmental issues; Access Soapbox, which allows residents to make a unfiltered on-air statements; and Access Ann Arbor, where local citizens can play host and chat with up to three guests, while CTN provides a volunteer crew to do the taping. Residents regularly create their own programs using CTN's freely provided resources, submit ready-made programs, or simply contribute to CTN's existing in-house productions.

"It's a real democracy in action," says Lucy Ann Visovatti, assistant manager at CTN, who helps run training programs and produce CTN shows.

And much like its for-profit brethren, CTN has started to move onto the Internet, allowing viewers to access and watch programs at their convenience. Given the rising interest in local politics, this is a boon for locals interested in Ann Arbor City Council and Commission meetings. While CTN's Video on Demand programs are currently very limited, it plans to feature over 200 meetings each year on the web site, and eventually content from all four of its channels.

So who's paying for all this free stuff?

CTN is supported entirely via franchise fees from Comcast and, on a far lesser scale, AT&T. In accordance with the recently passed Uniform Video Service Local Franchise Agreement Act, these franchise fees represent 5% of gross revenues. The amount of the PEG fees (public, educational and government channels) that these companies pay the city is 2% of gross revenues.

While the recently changed law has maintained some aspects of community television operations, it has dramatically upset others. When the State of Michigan passed the Act in 2007, local governments lost the ability to negotiate with cable providers directly for local franchise agreements.  Everything is now negotiated with the state. This caused communities undergoing contract transition (i.e. contracts were up for renegotiation) to lose funding and programming -- like Meridian Township and Dearborn, and even closing up cable studios entirely in others like Genesee County.

The Act also resulted in a change to consumer/cable company conflict resolution: According to Wondrash, she and the Ann Arbor Cable Communications Commission no longer oversee the resolution of customer complaints. Instead they are handled by the more distant state organization, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC).

What does this mean for CTN? Well, for the time being, Ann Arbor's access center is in good shape, having entered the state franchise agreement with a solid existing contract. Luckily, many crucial details had to be honored by the new Act. Not all Michigan communities have fared as well.

"The law was supposed to lower rates, but a recent survey conducted by the Alliance for Community Media (ACM) show that it has not reduced rates at all," says Visovatti.

According to the President of the Michigan Chapter of the Alliance for Community Media, Mark Monk, the new law has resulted in many communities losing their programming entirely. There is no provision under the new agreement for a given community to get a lost channel back or obtain a new channel.

"Essentially, it freezes the advance of communication in a community," says Monk. "Think of it in terms of communication inflation: If the whole world is experiencing communication inflation and you halt it in one area, a developing city for instance, you put the area at a huge disadvantage. Everything else moves forward and you are left behind."

Future challenges

As telephone companies join the television competition, their entre is posing some new challenges. Under the new law, CTN will have to pay for connections that transfer CTN's signal to AT&T, as well as the equipment that encodes the signal in a way AT&T can use. Salmeron estimates this will be approximately $17,000 per channel every year.

Another challenge posed by new players in the local cable theater is the low resolution, difficult to find format in which CTN programs will be displayed. The proposed system would require viewers to go to a high-numbered channel (in the 900's for instance) and locate and select the specific programming from a menu. "The resolution is unacceptably low," says Salmeron.

"These higher stations would put us in video Siberia," says Salmeron. "It would require a special converter box for you to watch it, which makes it tough for senior citizens and low income families to view."

"Ultimately," says Salmeron, "the industry is whittling away the smaller communities that didn't have legal agreements as strong as that in Ann Arbor."

Currently, ATT market saturation is low (CTN calculates there are only about 200 ATT customers in Ann Arbor) but Salmeron is concerned about their impact on CTN's ability to effectively reach viewers.

"They are a big company with a lot of influence," says Salmeron. "At some point we'll have to come together and work with them."

Despite these challenges, he and his staff remain positive about the future of community broadcasting.

"The existence and success of Ann Arbor's PEG programming are a testament of this community," says Visovatti, "We live in a community where people love to express themselves and speak out."

On any given evening, Ann Arborites can escape the for-profit television salvo of Microsoft Vista ads and toothy celebrities for a TV world that features discussions and full-length local events, rather than just clips. CTN offers up the kind of public space that has been lost as communities move away from public markets and "talking over the fence."

Whether you watch city Planning Commission sessions, a documentary on the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sisterhood, or a 1970s presentation arguing against the U.S. Electoral College (great outfits and hair are a bonus), you get something in CTN that you can't get elsewhere: Content for the people, by the people and of the people.