SNCAT on Charter’s chopping block.
You’ve done it just like everyone else has. Your remote scans in vain, trying to find that one station that will take you to entertainment bliss. Usually this finds you on cable channel 16, SNCAT, also known as the “Sierra Nevada Community Access Television.”
This is local-access television. We can see everything from city council meetings, to locally-produced movies, commercials, events and programming (like “Cheap Thrills Theatre,”) that is available to you, and available nowhere else.
Recently, Charter Communications, trying to get-with-the-times, is hacking and slashing its broadband communications signals to accommodate more high-definition channels and expand programming.
Or so the story goes, anyhow.
For some reason, Charter has elected to take the “lower channels,” on the standard analog intranet bandwidth (channels 2 through roughly 75) and send some of them to what are termed “digital tiers,” [sic], and this is including all local access channels 13, 15 and 17, with the major move causing the ruckus being SNCAT 16. These will have corresponding digital channel designations of 213, 215, 216, and 217. This move is going to be finalized on December 15, 2008.
The problem that some people have with this move is based upon Charter’s requirement that you must purchase upgrades to your cable programming in order to receive public access television. As it was before, you could order a “cable basic,” package which you received channels 2-27 inexpensively and this included all the major public access channels.
Charter obviously has its own direction it wishes to take this move and transition, and opponents to this transition are saying the cable company doesn’t care about its poor, old or handicapped that may have difficulty getting local access information otherwise.
Charter has had far less response to the outcry as far as I can tell, though there are some grassroots groups that would like to, at a minimum, sit down and talk with Charter about its wrongdoings and at most sue them.
A press release has stated the following via email to us here at GHR courtesy ReSurge.TV:
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RENO, NV - Without waiting for the Reno City Council to make a settle-or-sue decision next Wednesday, Charter Communications has begun implementing its plan to move northwestern Nevada public, educational and governmental (PEG) access television to the low-audience, high-cost digital tier.
Yesterday, Charter basic and expanded basic customers received a mailer notifying them that community television would be moved to the inaccessible digital tier on Dec. 15. A copy may be viewed at ReSurge.TV.
“The simple facts are that Charter has side-swiped the city of Reno,” stated Sierra Nevada Community Access Television (SNCAT) Executive Director Les Smith. (775-828-1211)
“In all their offers, Charter stated that they would provide free installation. But there is no offer of installation anywhere in the mailer,” he noted in a memo to the Reno City Council.
“In addition, by requiring those who wish to redeem the coupon (for a one-year waiver of Charter’s $5.00 per month per digital converter fee) to bring it to the Charter offices, they have effectively put this offer out of reach of all but a handful of the at-risk, core viewership that Councilman David Aiazzi and the City of Reno have sought to protect all along. Charter’s offer is no solution and was obviously planned and executed prior to last Monday’s council meeting,” Smith stated.
Charter sent the council a letter dated Nov. 7 that the company would mail a “waiver letter” to “all residential analog customers” which would offer “FREE installation.” (No emphasis added.)
“The SNCAT board asked me to recommend that the City of Reno take whatever legal steps are necessary to stop this move,” Smith said.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has promised to join the City of Reno in potential legal action. (Statement to Reno News & Review posted at ReSurge.TV)
Please contact Sen. Reid, Reno Mayor Bob Cashell and members of the Reno City Council. Ask them to keep their promise to go to court to stop Charter cable from killing community television in northwestern Nevada.
Local governments in Michigan have successfully sued to stop Comcast, a potential buyer of Charter’s Nevada operations, from moving the PEG channels. The federal court decision is posted with this story at ReSurge.TV.
The Charter issue is still on the Reno City Council agenda (items J15 and J15-.1) for Wednesday, Nov. 19. Those wishing to make their opinions heard should plan on attending.
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As you can see, there’s been a lot of details about rebates, equipment, discounts and all that jazz.
I’m not a character that decides upon morality, because that is a can of worms left to people willing to fight for ideals. As Gay Rodeo here, I don’t feel it is my place to side for or against morals, and beyond that, politics to a sided degree. In fact, I like to think of GHR as the place you can escape the bullshit, and stick to what makes sense rather than worry about if something is (R) or (D). We’re not fair and balanced, we’re just smart and sassy.
Charter Communications being the sole proprieter of direct cable service in the area should have a vested, working interest in making people that live here in the Truckee Meadows happy, or at least attempt to compromise with their current and future customers.
The way I look at it, I can’t attend City Council meetings, and I sure like watching them from the comfort of my own, even though I cannot ask my questions directly. I think a lot of people get their local information and happenings from these channels, and it won’t do the community any good by limiting access. It obviously is something that is easy and straight-forward and advantageous to Charter, pencil-pushers, company economists and management.
I’m going to try and follow this situation further, and as events develop, I’ll happily post them. I might not be as gung-ho about getting Halfway House Joe or Gramma Martha her public access, but I do feel it is a mistake to put it out of the reach of a majority of the people involved.
Please, feel free to discuss your opinions and facts about this situation as it develops. It is your community, and your information.
As always, GHR will always be available to the masses!
- Gay Rodeo
November 14th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
This issue’s a doozy. I wish the city would get its act together and actually pay SNCAT and use SNCAT for the service SNCAT provides. The city is trying to stop using SNCAT for all its various public info broadcasting needs, this has resulted in city council meetings no longer being available for viewing on demand on the internet via SNCAT’s website. City staff apparently want to handle this responsibility, but they seem to lack any sort of coherent process to do so, and they are quite lax at getting meetings up for on-demand viewing. Not only that, but live streams of city council meetings are choppy and unpredictable, causing more than one occasion of a councilmember being unable to catch a lot of meeting content when dialed in via conference call when traveling. It seems a little weird to publicly be on the side of the SNCAT viewing public vis a vis this digital cable issue, and simultaneously support policies that neuter the city’s ability to effectively deliver content via new media. SNCAT seems to have a great facility for live streaming and on-demand internet broadcasting, and the city trying to recreate the wheel on that side and trying to abandon SNCAT in the long-run, makes them taking the fight to Charter seem a little hollow to these eyes.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I’m and employee at SNCAT and want to thank you for the interest in the subject of charters decision to move the channels. Here at the station we know that the city contracts might be the main income but the public is the heartbeat. Public Acccess TV is freedom of speech at its best. while the reach and viewership doesn’t and never will compete with the likes of “American Idol” but important things are said and done on CH 16. Any one can come in and create there own TV show with professional equipment(and help) that will Air not just on youtube but on cable TV. and the price is free(after some cheap training classes). I want to encourage anyone to stop by and check us out and find a few friends and start up a show. I would even like to see a GOD HATES RENO show. We are always looking for new producers who are excited and have a message to get out. or just want to have fun. SNCAT has always been and will always be here for the people of Reno/sparks area. If God hates Reno the he hates SNCAT too. (but you couldn’t tell with all the religious programs we run)
December 8th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Nic…
Yes sir, people have to want it to keep it. That’s the way the game is played. Personally, like many things Reno, one it is gone, people will probably start blinking into the light and perhaps bitching. Which would be a sad thing, since there are not as many viewers as other programs but viewers exist nonetheless.
A “God Hates Reno,” production wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, however, just keeping this site relevant and up-to-date with the ragtag crew we have is a stretch. That’d have to be an idea as people jumped on board the GHR fan-wagon, because we are contribution-based. SNCAT would be an excellent avenue for us to pursue in the future, however, if things go the way they go, we wouldn’t be able to see our own show because snarkiness does not equate money. We’re overrun with one resource and not the other, if you catch our drift.
We don’t really think any gods hate anything, and even if they did, would we care?
We are trying to find out more information on the SNCAT situation from a street-level to professional levels. GHR likes SNCAT, and thinks the rest of the Truckee Meadows should, too.
GR