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Watch meetings on demand

You've heard of HBO on demand, right? Soon government TV will be on demand, too.

By WILL VAN SANT and ELENA LESLEY, Times Staff Writer s
Published December 20, 2007

They've seen their cable channels shuffled and local government programs sent into the digital stratosphere.

But soon Bright House Networks digital cable subscribers will be able to catch some local government broadcasting whenever they want.

The cable provider announced Wednesday that in the first three months of 2008, it will create an on-demand channel to allow viewers to select programs from a revolving library of local government broadcasts and play them at their convenience.

Clearwater, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties will be the first to provide content for the channel, though Bright House is working on adding additional local governments to the mix.

A channel has not been selected and a date to launch the service has not been decided.

The move comes a week after Bright House peeved local officials across Tampa Bay by moving their programming off basic cable and far up the digital tier, into the 600s. The change requires viewers without digital or high-definition cable to get a special tuner from Bright House for $1 a month to watch public meetings and government-produced programs.

Bright House spokesman Joe Durkin said the decision to offer on-demand government broadcasting was fueled more by the company's desire to upgrade its services than from a wish to appease local officials and viewers angry over the decision to relocate the channels.

Cable subscribers will still need digital or high-definition cable, plus the special tuner, to watch the on-demand programs.

Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard said local governments lost the battle over relocating government channels last March in Tallahassee. He welcomed Bright House's decision to offer on-demand government programming, which he sees as unrelated to that fight.

"We're in an on-demand society," Hibbard said. "People want things within their time frame, their schedule, rather than vice versa."

While Hibbard is looking forward, some local government officials remain livid with Bright House for relocating government channels, which are sometimes blasted as little more than propaganda voices but do offer meat-and-potatoes broadcasts such as council and commission meetings.

In Tarpon Springs, the criticism heaped on Bright House led Mayor Beverley Billiris Tuesday night to urge her fellow commissioners to tone it down. The company could yank hundreds of thousands of dollars in free advertising it has said it would give the city, she said.

Billiris said she had been told by Brian Aungst, former Clearwater mayor and now Bright House's public affairs director, that the company was unhappy about "derogatory comments" commissioners had made regarding the decision to remove local government programming from basic cable.

But Commissioner Peter Dalacos said he refused to be muzzled.

"I'm not going to stop spelling out the truth," he told his fellow commissioners, who earlier this month passed a resolution protesting Bright House's decision.

Dalacos called the move by Bright House a "money grab."

Billiris said she had no trouble with commissioners expressing their views, but she requested they do so respectfully.

Or, she said, Bright House might "respectfully take their money home." The cable company has agreed to give Tarpon Springs between $250,000 and $300,000 of free advertising for the performing arts.

"We are in danger of losing that," she said.

In an e-mail Aungst wrote Billiris, he said the tuners cost around $300 each, even though the company is only charging customers $1 a month for them. Billiris also said customers who can't afford the tuners or an upgrade to digital are eligible for a $40 coupon.

Before commissioners chastise the company too harshly, "we need to make sure we have all the facts," Billiris said.

But Dalacos didn't buy Bright House's defense.

"That's all PR," he said. "They want to make it sound like they're doing us a favor."

The tuner charges are minimal - where Bright House will really make money is through advertisements on channels that were previously government access, Dalacos said.

"The truth is, it's money," he said. "It's all about money."

Will Van Sant can be reached at vansant@sptimes.com or 727 445-4166.

Fast facts

At a glance

What: Bright House Networks says it will create an on-demand channel so viewers can request some government programs whenever they want.

Who: Clearwater, and Pinellas and Hillsborough counties will be the first local governments to provide content for the channel.

When: Early 2008.

Where: On a channel to be designated, probably high up on the digital dial.

[Last modified December 19, 2007, 21:53:21]