Anton Konev of the Coalition to Save Albany said. “The city must give its people a voice, connect communities, and encourage civic participation by including this genuine public service (which has been missing for almost two decades) in the new franchise agreement.”

Councilman Corey Ellis, a member of the City Council Law Committee and representative of the 3rd ward added “A quarter billion dollar franchise agreement cannot be negotiated behind closed doors by the mayor and the industry without input from elected officials and the community. It is time for Albany to provide Public Access TV which could keep the people connected to their elected officials by televising City Council meetings and hearings.”

The Council of Albany Neighborhood Associations and several neighborhood associations have been advocating for public access channels for many years. “As resident of the City of Albany and cable subscriber, I support Time Warner's corporate mission to operate in the City of Albany, however, I must encourage Time Warner to be a participating corporate neighbor by supporting our request for public access Ttelevision.” stated John Paneto, President of Shaker Park/Shaker Road/Bishops Gate Neighborhood Association.

Public, Educational and Government (PEG) programming supports the practically abandoned need for diversity of control and representation. Public access provides:
• The only unmediated coverage for communities of color;
• Coverage of positive cultural activities in our communities which do not get commercial media attention;
• The right and ability to create a community in our own image;
• Technical training and jobs. PEG operations employ more people of color and women in management and technical positions than all of commercial industry combined.

PEG access is a government mandate (out of 5% fee that the city collects for the agreement) that provides television production building infrastructure, equipment, training and airtime on a local cable system so members of the public, educational system, and the government can produce their own shows and televise them to a mass audience. Municipalities must take initiative and petition the cable operator to provide the funding for PEG access as stipulated by the law, but municipalities may also choose to take no action and instead keep the franchise fees in a general fund. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is not public access television and has no official connection with PEG. PBS does not regularly provide free use of facilities to produce programming.

Michael Max Knobbe of the NY Chapter of the Alliance for Community Media New York (ACMNY) explains, “Communities across the nation benefit from the media access, education/training, economic development, focus on local issues, and empowerment that comes from Public Educational & Governmental Access Television. Our capitol and this great state deserve and need 21st century media production facilities to give people a voice, connect communities, and encourage civic participation. This is tantamount to our democracy in a digital age.”

Steve Pierce, Executive Director of NY Media Alliance, a statewide media advocacy organization, continued, “We must be proactive and assure public access for our communities and assure that we have a link between the city’s outstanding educational institutions, public institutions (city library), government and non-for-profits. This cable franchise is, at heart, a real estate deal between the City of Albany and Time Warner Cable. It should define significant benefits that our citizens will derive from allowing a private company use of our public rights of way (streets, sidewalks, overhead lines) to operate an extremely lucrative business.”

THE COALITION DEMANDED THAT MAYOR GERALD JENNINGS MOVE FORWARD WITH A PLAN THAT ASSURES PUBLIC ACCESS TELEVISION