Billerica Access Television, Inc.

In an attempt to help preserve and protect Public, Education and Government (PEG) access channels, Wisconsin Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin filed the Community Access Preservation Act (CAP). The bill, filed on October 8, 2009, if enacted would:

• Allow PEG access fees to be used for any PEG-related purpose;

• End operators’ discriminatory treatment of PEG channels;

• Direct the FCC to study and report on the effects recent states’ video franchising legislation has had on PEG access; and

• Define all video services delivered to the home over wire as “cable” for the purposes of the act, regardless of the transmission protocol used.

The Alliance for Community Media (ACM) endorses the bill and is launching a campaign to gather co-sponsors, get a version filed in the Senate, get the bill passed by Congress and signed by the President. If you would like to help preserve PEG Access and BATV, please contact your Representatives and Senators. To make this process easy, the ACM has drafted a letter that you can use; simply visit www.alliancecm.org, under “Public Policy”, click on “Fax Congress”, click on “Support CAP”, and enter your zip code (in some cases, you may have to enter a street address). Your Representative and Senator’s name will appear; you may amend the letter or simply leave it as it reads, enter your personal information, then click on “Send”. This action will result in letters being faxed to your Representatives and Senators.

Your attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.

Billerica Access Television, Inc. (BATV) is pleased to announce that effective January 27, Billerica’s Public, Educational and Government access programming will commence cablecasting on the Verizon New England, Inc. network.

For those residents subscribing to Verizon New England, Inc. services, Billerica’s Public, Educational and Government access programming can be viewed on channels 24 (Educational Access), 26 (Government Access), and 28 (Public Access).

For those residents subscribing to Comcast of Massachusetts, Inc. services, Billerica’s Public, Educational and Government access programming continue to cablecast on channels 8 (Public Access), 10 (Educational Access), and 22 (Government Access).

For a complete BATV programming guide, please visit www.batvinc.org and click on “What’s On”.

Billerica Access Television, Inc. is accepting nominations for the BATV Board of Directors. Elections will be held Thursday, March 18, 2010 at the Annual Meeting of the BATV Membership. Any BATV member in good standing may make a nomination. Nominees must reside or work in Billerica, but need not be BATV members.

How do I nominate an individual?

1. All nominations shall be made in writing and submitted electronically to the BATV Election Committee. Please email your nomination to batv.batvinc@comcast.net. Please enter “BATV Election Committee” on the subject line.

2. As per the BATV By-Laws Article IV, Section 6, “As a rule, no individual under the age of eighteen (18) shall serve as a member of the Board of Directors as per Massachusetts General Law Chapter 231, Section 85O.”

3. Independent nominations may be made by any member in good standing.

4. Your nominee must live or work in Billerica, but need not be a BATV member.

5. Your nomination must include nominee’s profile information (not to exceed 300 words) to be included in an election booklet and posted on BATV’s website. Profile information will be printed as presented.

6. The BATV Election Committee must receive your nomination and nominee’s profile information before 5:00 p.m., February 15, 2010. Nominations without profile information will not be accepted.

For more information, please call 978-663-2284.

The BATV Holiday Gathering on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 was a great success. Thank you to all of those who attended!

For those of you who voted for your Favorite Holiday Movie, the results are in!

The number one movie was
"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946)

Here is how the votes stacked up: