Telecommunications industry lobbyists are working to pass a new measure that threatens public access programming and net neutrality in Michigan. The bill, HB 6456 or the "Michigan Video Act," is being put on a fast-track by "lame duck" Senators who are working with industry lobbyists to pass the bill before the end of the legislative year. According to the media reform organization Free Press, the bill was written by telephone industry lobbyists and is part of a concerted effort by telecommunications corporations to attack net neutrality and public access at the state level after suffering setbacks at the federal level due to widespread public opposition. Under the terms outlined in the bill, public access, including channels such as Grand Rapids' GRTV are threatened, while network neutrality on the internet--the principle that all content must be delivered equally and without preference (for example, traffic to Media Mouse is treated the same as that to WOOD TV and there is no preference given to corporate content)--is being threatened by a bill that the Grand Rapids Community Media Center has called "full of ambiguous language and technically flawed" in an email titled "PEG Specific Issues in HB 6456: From a Community Media Perspective" and distributed to that organization's membership.
The analysis prepared by the Grand Rapids Community Media Center highlights a number of reasons why Michigan residents should oppose the bill. The bill mandates that public, education, and government access channels be delivered to cable providers via the method that they chose, requiring public, educational, and government entities to invest in expensive new hardware in order to deliver content. Under current franchise agreements, which are currently negotiated by municipalities (but would no longer be under HB 6456) in exchange for the use of public rights of way, this content is delivered to cable companies at no cost via cable's upstream channels. HB 6456 restricts franchise fees to up to 1% and mandates that they be used for capital costs such as buildings rather than allowing access facilities to allocate the money as needed. Upstream (iNets) channels would also be eliminated, meaning that communities using a portion of the cable system for public safety (911), government communications, video transmission, or for local program acquisition would have to immediately replace critical systems. The bill makes no mention of where funding for such upgrades would come from, suggesting that it would likely have to come from local taxpayers. The bill would also limit the number of access channels to those that currently exist preventing future additions and would allow cable companies to place access channels in any package they chose rather than being required to place them the most affordable packages as currently stipulated.
Opponents of the bill have planned a rally for Tuesday November 27 in Lansing from 12:00pm to 1:00pm on the steps of the Michigan capitol building. The legislation has attracted national attention and as such the rally is being sponsored or attended by a variety of entities including the Michigan chapter of the Alliance for Community Media, the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, Free Press, MoveOn, and even Google. Free Press' call to action describes Lansing as "swarming" with AT&T lobbyists who are attempting to push the bill through as soon as possible while the Michigan Alliance for Community Media is urging citizens to stand up for "broadband competition, PEG Access, and internet freedom." The Alliance call goes on to label the pending bill "a hand-out to AT&T and Comcast." In addition to the rally, Free Press has an online email action that allows Michigan residents to send a letter opposing the bill and is encouraging people to submit letters to the editors of their local newspapers as a means of publicizing the issue. In order to facilitate the "letter to the editor" action, Free Press has setup an online application to expedite the process.
