Local control over how cable television service is provided in your neighborhood is being threatened. The phone companies are making a power play that will deny your community control over rights of way, public access channels, and equal access to cable television for all Tennessee Citizens.

How are they doing this? The telephone companies are proposing legislation that, if passed, would take away your local government’s oversight of the video/cable franchising process in your community.

What does this mean to you? There are many harmful aspects of this proposed legislation. Here is what the passing of a State-Issued Video Franchise will mean to you, the consumer:

• Discrimination – the phone companies want to offer their competitive television services to only the more affluent or “high-value” customers. Current locally-issued cable franchise agreements require video providers to serve all neighborhoods in a community. Today, all citizens in a community are guaranteed access and improvements. Through local agreements, cable companies have “built-out” markets regardless of neighborhood status – all are treated fairly and equally. Under State-Issued Video Franchising, video providers can pick which neighborhoods in a community they want to serve and which neighborhoods they want to ignore. This new system guarantees access and improvements only to people who live in a selected community and guarantees that everyone else will be ignored. Phone companies want to choose who they serve.

• Loss of Local Programming – the phone companies don’t want to provide local access channels to your community. They want the cable company to be required to continue offering this community service, but they feel they should be exempt.

• Loss of Local Franchise Control – Mayors, city councils and county commissioners lose their ability to do what is best for their communities through various measures, such as requiring equal availability of services throughout your community. The current local franchising process has worked extremely well for local governments, consumers and for cable companies doing business in local markets. It’s a proven approach that above everything else has protected consumers by ensuring access and quality.

• An ever-increasing Digital Divide – The absence of build-out requirements for traditional telephone companies will virtually guarantee a slower deployment of video and broadband services for rural and medium- to low-income areas, putting them farther and farther behind affluent and urban neighborhoods in access to technological resources.