Cable Operations Very Complex, Says Pittsfield Cable Commission Chairman
Pittsfield - The city's Cable Commission Chairman Brian Johnson said that cable television companies do not have as much control over viewing options as the public believes.Johnson contacted iberkshires on Jan. 24 after reading an article about the Time-Warner company's plan to remove the Boston-based WBZ Channel 4 from the Northern Berkshire cable channel line-up. North Adams Mayor John Barrett III has publicly denounced the move.
Pittsfield and Time-Warner are currently engaged in contract negotiations. WBZ is not part of the Central or Southern Berkshire Time-Warner cable channel line-up.
According to Johnson, it is the Federal Communications Commission that dictates cable company operations. For instance, the inclusion of Western Massachusetts communities within an Albany, N.Y. cable viewing district was the doing of the FCC, not a cable company, Johnson said.
And one reason for that decision is the influence of advertising dollars, he said.
Johnson said that from an advertising perspective, including Western Massachusetts in a central or eastern Massachusetts cable district doesn't make sense. For example, a Hancock resident is not likely to drive to Boston to eat a restaurant promoted on a Boston-based television channel, nor would such a resident be likely to drive to Boston to buy a car that might be advertised by a North End vehicle dealer.
Western Massachusetts residents are more likely to be shopping at venues that may be located in nearby New York, he said, and he added that there are Berkshire-based businesses that advertise on channels 13[NBC], 10[ABC], 6[CBS], and 8[FOX].
Cable companies also often offer what Johnson termed a "second national feed," meaning another network station from another locale. For instance, the Hartford, Conn.-based channel Time-Warner plans to bring to the Northern Berkshire channel line-up is a CBS affiliate, as is WBZ, which means the basic tier of channels will continue to offer two CBS stations.
Johnson said that hosting a "secondary national feed" is not something mandated by the FCC.
Johnson also said that the FCC requires Time-Warner to deliver Albany, N.Y, television stations to Western Massachusetts viewers and that any time a "second national feed" is proposed, FCC-mandated stations must permit the action. Cable companies are under no obligation to offer or deliver the "second feed," said Johnson.
Johnson also said that there are no laws that require competition among cable companies, but that the law does prohibit the companies from what he termed "price-fixing."
Johnson said that he was not "coming down on the side of cable companies" but did want to make his understanding of cable company operations public.
He voiced a cautionary note about satellite dish companies.
"You will get a lot more programming but they will never do anything the FCC doesn't make them do," he said.
Johnson voiced the same concerns about television services offered by Verizon, and asserted that Verizon holds a different, less generous view about funding public access television channels than cable companies.
"If they [Verizon] aren't made to do these things, they won't do them," he said.
