Stand up for Omaha The Website of Independent Television Omaha
Defending Public Interest Television In Omaha
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is Cox now showing on its basic lineup?
The basic lineup includes channels 1 through 27. Cox considers these channels to be “public access:” 4, 17, 18, 21, 22, and 23. Actually, channel 21 is almost entirely comprised of a satellite feed from the national Catholic channel known as EWTN, the Eternal Word Television Network. A great deal of the time on Channels 22 and 23 is used for commercial activity. The same is true for channels not known as “public access.” Channel 3 is Home Shopping. Channel 14 is QVC. Channel 19, the TV Guide channel, has lots of commercials built in. Channel 24 is a real estate channel. And, Channel 2, which until very recently had programming from UPN, now is comprised almost entirely of car ads. What is most puzzling, however, is that Cox, while absolutely swearing that it cannot find room to broadcast another public access channel, is not using Channel 20 at all.

Is public access supposed to be locally produced?
Originally it was hoped that, if adequate support from the profits of the cable monopoly was earmarked for public access, ordinary citizens would jump at the chance to use television to get their message out. To some extent this did happen in New York, which has a huge budget for its public access services. To a lesser extent, it has also happened in Tucson and other places more like Omaha. But only if there was a commitment to fund the centers where producers could learn how to make television programs, get support, use editing equipment, and check out cameras and other equipment.

Omaha’s city legal department has said that public access channels in Omaha must be 60% locally produced. We question whether that standard is currently being met by existing public access channels, although Cox provides CTAC with a monthly report, citing the number of locally produced hours. There is no independent verification of this, however, because the only data being kept related to the percentage of programming that is locally produced comes from the channels themselves, and these reports give only a raw number (e.g. Channel 21 reported that it had broadcast 64 hours of locally produced content in April, 2006) but they do not cite the programs, the times, or the names of the local producers. Go to Channel 21 and try to find a locally produced show!

In any case, ITO is prepared to meet the standard that other channels are required to meet.

Finally, the question of “locally produced” seems not nearly as important to us to address the original goals, as “locally controlled.” What we want is what Tucson has, that is, a fully funded facility that is controlled by an independent board, not by city council, and certainly not by Cox.

Does Independent Television Omaha really plan to operate an entire television channel? Even if Cox broadcasts the signal, won’t there still be huge expenses to put together such an ongoing project?
We sure do plan to do this and we are confident that we can get the job done. Here are a few things that make this goal easier than it might have been a few years ago.

First, Free Speech TV and Democracy Now! do not charge local stations for the right to air their material. Second, the technology needed to run community channels gets better and cheaper all the time. The main piece of hardware we will need is called a server. It is available from Leightronics, a company that specializes in helping community television operators, for about $3,000. Finally, we do intend to draw heavily on volunteers for the first year. But after we become established in Omaha, we are confident that we can raise money in on-air fund drives, just as PBS and NPR do several times a year. At that point we will be able to have one or two paid staff members.

This sounds like a good thing for everybody. Why won’t Cox support the idea?
We agree, it would be a real service for Omaha and simply cannot account for their position. But, since you asked, here are some of the things we have been hearing from Cox at the CTAC meetings.

“Nobody watches public access television, so let’s get rid of it.”
This is like saying “we had a low voter turnout so let’s get rid of elections.”

“We have to use our limited bandwidth to broadcast more sports because that’s what our customers want.”
Many people do like sports. But there is absolutely no evidence that they cannot deliver all the sports Omaha people want and still keep their contractual commitment to public access. Cox is making money hand over fist. They made an unexpected windfall last August and had to turn over some extra revenues to the city that even the city wasn’t expecting, and it made the front page of the World-Herald. Just how much they’re making is hard to find out, and they sure won’t tell us, but we have not found a single case where they got out of a city because public access was costing them too much.

“Only a small number of the total hours of public access time is being used, so we should compress it all into fewer stations.”
Actually, during prime time, most of the total hours are being used. It’s the middle-of-the-night slots that go begging. When ITO gets its channel, we intend to use all our time and we have plenty of great material to fill the hours, with locally produced shows, as well as non-commercial shows from Free Speech TV.

What is “public access” and what is PEG?
PEG is short for Public, Educational, and Governmental. You will find the acronym PEG used in FEC documents, or by various television professionals. Most people in Omaha just call them all “public access.”