TVFreedom has called on Congress to pass the Community Access Preservation (CAP) Act, which is the bill that would insure that public, educational and government (PEG) channels remain on cable's basic tier and would allow PEG funding to be used for operations, among other things.
PEG advocate American Community Television, which has been battling cable ops over PEG channel placement for years, has joined TVFreedom last week in its battle with cable ops over retrans reforms, which is TVFreedom's signature issue.
TVFreedom said last week it supported the PEG bill, but Tuesday put an exclamation point on that with letters to the leadership of the House Energy & Commerce Committee and Senate Commerce Committee.
"In these challenging economic times in which the budgets of local governments are shrinking and municipalities are being asked to do more with less, it is critical that lawmakers factor this into their legislative agendas as they seek to empower local governments to deliver public service television programming to their local communities," said TVFreedom spokesman Rob Kenny in a statement.
Broadcasters are also fighting cable efforts to include a prohibition on basic-tier status for retrans stations in must-pass satellite television legislation, so they share the goal of preserving their respective basic tier positions.
