 The Town of Billerica will be hosting an ascertainment hearing on
Tuesday, May 21, 2019 at 7:30 pm in the Conway Room at Town Hall to gather valuable information needed to renew the Town’s cable license with Comcast. Please attend this important hearing and express in a few words why BATV is important to you & the community Without public support at this hearing, BATV will not receive the funding it needs to continue providing the services you’ve come to expect. It’s as simple as stating “the programming on the access channels provides pertinent information for the citizens of Billerica”, “my child learned so much from BATV’s youth programs”, “BATV helps provide awareness for our non-profit organization”, or similar. BATV’s existence is dependent upon this hearing and the cable license The cable license, among other items, defines the cable system design for the Town of Billerica, maintenance & operations, services & programming, subscriber rights, consumer protection, performance tests and much more. But more importantly, it defines Public, Education and Government access facilities and support (for BATV). To be successful in this process, your support is necessary  If it's been a while since you've stopped by BATV or if you have never been to BATV and are curious about some of the equipment that we have available, this is the event for you! We've got a lot of really cool new pieces of gear to help you really add that extra something to your production.
Technology that we'll be demoing: - Our podcasting setup - Our Virtual Reality (VR) setup - Our Rhino Gear video slider - Our new Sling Studio which allows users to create simple or very complex field productions on the fly This event is free and open to Billerica residents, however in order to use BATV's gear for your own productions, you will first be required to sign up for a BATV membership and take a certification course on the gear that you wish to use. This tech night is a great opportunity to see some of the new gear BATV has to offer and learn about how it works. Please feel free to bring friends. We hope to see you there! Please Help Billerica Access Television
& PEG Access TV Nationwide Stop the FCC from Defunding PEG Channels The FCC is proposing to redefine what a franchise fee is and it will radically reduce the level of monetary support available to run PEG access channels across the United States. This means that BATV and access centers across the country could lose funding and no longer be able to provide the community with the hyperlocal coverage that you've come to rely on. Please let your congressional representatives know you support Billerica Access Television and PEG Access TV nationwide by clicking HERE and sign the petition asking Congress to stop the FCC from trying to re-write the 1984 Cable Act and financially starving local communities and our PEG channels in its rule-making (Docket NR 05-311). It only takes a couple of minutes to do. If you’ve already taken action, please share the link and encourage your friends to do the same. Thank you for your time and continued support of community media. Public, Education and Government Access Television may be more important now than ever! Billerica Access Television, Inc. (BATV) and every access corporation nationwide provide communities the opportunity to have their voices heard in the sea of national, now global, media. What happens in each community affects each of us everyday and the right to speak out on any issue, big or small, is the first and most important Right we have.
The FCC is proposing to redefine what a franchise fee is and it may radically reduce the level of monetary support available to run Public, Education and Government access channels nationwide. BATV and its Board of Directors not only oppose the FCC’s current proposal, but also its 2002 decision that declared revenues from cable modem service not be used in computing franchise fees. The BATV Board of Directors unanimously approved a statement that supports overturning the FCC’s 2002 rulemaking and amending the Cable Communications Policy Act. The entire BATV Board of Director statement can be viewed HERE. |
