Citizens
Television, Inc.
Comcast
Channels 26, 27, 96
New Haven, Hamden, West Haven (CT)
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2666 State St.
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Economic Discrimination: Why Citizens Television is not on AT&T U-Verse Residents of New Haven, Hamden and West Haven can receive Citizens Television (CTV) on Comcast channels 26, 27 and 96. And even though they pay the same monthly community access fee as Comcast subscribers do, subscribers to AT&T cannot receive CTV at all. Why is that? The CTV board of directors has persistently voted not to go onto the AT&T U-Verse system for a number of reasons, among which is economic discrimination. AT&T was granted special status by the CT state legislature in 2006 to offer competition to established cable providers in the state (Comcast, Charter, etc.) as a means of driving prices down. But unlike the cable providers, who have to offer their services to any resident in the provider’s service area, AT&T was allowed to cherrypick the neighborhoods they would serve - meaning they could serve only those areas that were most profitable to them. And so, while every resident in the New Haven service area can get Comcast, considerably fewer can get AT&T. Ironically, from where CTV is located in Hamden, not even we can get AT&T. That means if an AT&T subscriber had problems with the CTV signal, there would be no way for CTV to see that problem at the station. Comcast provides free cable to CTV so that we can constantly check our signal - the same signal that our viewers receive. This year, CTV spent $75,000 of your money to make that signal of equal quality to the other programs you watch on television Why would a resident choose AT&T over Comcast? One reason: If the cost is cheaper. So residents who can get both Comcast and AT&T have an economic choice that their neighbors just several blocks away do not have. It is outright economic discrimination. But there are other issues. AT&T would hide CTV on a channel with literally all of the other public access stations in the state. Residents would have to search for us. And when found, we would take longer to appear on your screen. And that appearance would not be a regular full television picture, but the inferior image you would get in Windows Media Player on your computer. More discrimination. CTV would not be treated as a real television station, but as a second-rate entity. Your $75,000 would be wasted on the quality of the CTV signal that AT&T would offer its subscribers if we gave into them. And the waste continues. CTV spends several thousand dollars a year to identify each individual program while it is playing. Comcast subscribers can get immediate information about each program they are watching. AT&T cannot provide that service to CTV subscribers. CTV has no financial responsibility
for the equipment to run its programs on Comcast. AT&T would require CTV to be
financially responsible for the maintenance, repair and replacement of any
equipment located at CTV which is needed to show its programming on AT&T. Help us out. Call your state Reps and Senators and tell them to roll back the legislation that lets AT&T economically discriminate against all of us and makes public access inferior to commercial television. To find your State Rep. and Senator, click here
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