June 5, 2019 Minutes
CTAC Meeting Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Attendees:
Tad Weinstein – (West Haven) – Chair
George Alexander – (Hamden) – Treasurer
Yvonne Manning-Jones – (New Haven ) – Advisor.
John Jessen – (New Haven Public Library System) – Advisor
Johnes Ruta – (New Haven) – Acting Secretary
Laurel Coleman – (Hamden) – Advisor
Meeting convened at 6:05.
- Review of May 1, 2019 Minutes
Two corrections received by Johnes before meeting,
One correction from Tad, one correction from George – applied to May Minutes.
Laure; makes Motion to accept May Minutes. Tad seconds this Motion.
Vote unanimous.2. July meeting to be canceled due to July 4th holiday. Next meeting August 7th.
3. Adult Centers for towns in three venues:
a. New Haven venue – not yet identifiedb. West Haven venue – no yet identified
c. Hamden venue identified and contributed
Letter from Hamden venue:
PARTNERSHIPS CENTER FOR ADULT DAY CARE
3 Industrial Circle Hamden, CT 06517
Phone (203) 248-8854 Fax (203) 287-1880
May 25, 2019
The Cable Television Advisory Council for Hamden, New Haven, and West Haven
PO Box 8415 New Haven, CT 06530-0415
Dear Tad Weinstein & Friends:
On behalf of the participants, staff, and Board of Directors of Partnerships Center for Adult Day Care, I would like to thank you for your generous pledge of $1000 to support our organization. Your gift will be put to vital use to fund our Cablevision service which provides internet service for our offices as well as cable television.
We are grateful for George Alexander’s recommendation for this donation and would welcome your further involvement with Partnerships. Partnerships provides daycare for frail elderly clients with dementia and Alzheimer’s which enables its participants to remain living at home for as long as possible. Your support helps us to provide vital support for the quality of life for the participants, family members and caregivers. Partnerships provides service to residents of the greater New Haven area, which includes the towns of Hamden, North Haven, New Haven, Bethany, Orange, Wallingford, East Haven, West Haven and Branford.
I would welcome meeting you to answer any questions and providing a tour of our center at your convenience.
Please feel free to contact us at (203) 248-8854 for any further information you may need. Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Mary Beth Kiely, R.N. Director
-
COMCAST Report – Report received from Sharon Codeanne.
C O M C A S T
May 23, 2019 Via Electronic Filing and Is` Class Mail
Jeffrey R. Gaudiosi, Esq. Executive Secretary
Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority 10 Franklin Square New Britain, Connecticut 06051
Re: Important Information — Xfinity TV Channel Updates
Dear Secretary Gaudiosi:
I am writing to you on behalf of Comcast/Branford, Comcast/Clinton, Comcast/Danbury, Comcast/Groton, Comcast/Hartford, Comcast/Lakeville Comcast/Middletown, Comcast/New Haven, Comcast/Norwich, Comcast/Old Lyme, Comcast/Plainville, Comcast/Seymour, Comcast/Vernon, Comcast/Waterbury, and Comcast/Connecticut as part of our ongoing efforts to keep you informed about key aspects of Comcast services.
Hitz
We are committed to keeping you and our customers informed about changes to Xfinity TV services. Accordingly, please note that as of July 17, 2019, customers who subscribe to the Digital Premier Tier, receive Digital Premier Tier as part of their package, or subscribe to one of the packages listed below, will receive Hitz, a new service that will include more than 200 movie titles selected from a variety of top studios. As of that date, Cinemax will no longer be available with Digital Premier Tier or those packages listed below. For more information about this change, please visit http://xfinity.com/hitz. We are notifying customers who subscribe to these services of this change.
The following packages offered in the past or currently will be modified with the change described above:
Digital Premier Package Digital Premier w/ Sports Digital Showcase Entertainment Package Everything Package HD Digital Showcase MultiLatino Total HD Triple Play Premier Double Play Premier Tier w/ Sports Premier w/ Sports Double Play Total Premium Ultimate Pak Cinemax will still be available to purchase separately as a Premium channel. Customers who currently subscribe to Cinemax as a separate Premium channel or with our Digital Preferred with 1 Premium (Cinemax) service will continue to receive the channel. For those customers, as of July 10, 2019, the following channels will only be located on channels 1822 to 1835, where a vailable: More Max, Action Max, Thriller Max, 5Star Max, MovieMax, OuterMax, and Cinemax. We are notifying customers who currently subscribe to these channels through bill messages.
WCCT
Beginning June 26, 2019, we will no longer provide WCCT as part of the channel lineup in Bethel, Danbury, Ridgefield and Shelton, Connecticut. This is because our business agreement with the station’s owner to carry this out-of-market broadcast station in these towns has ended.
Letter to PURA May 23, 2019 Page 2 of 3
WCCT is a CW affiliate based outside of the local broadcast area for Bethel, Danbury, Ridgefield and Shelton. WCCT provides the same network programming carried on the local CW station, WPIX (SD channel 11; HD channel 1011). Other WCCT syndicated programming is also available on other local stations that remain on the local TV lineup.
WPIX
Beginning June 26, 2019, we will no longer provide WPIX as part of the channel lineup in Comcast/New Haven, Comcast/Seymour (except for Shelton), and Comcast/Waterbury. This is because our business agreement with the station’s owner to carry this out-of-market broadcast station in these towns has ended.
WPIX is a CW affiliate based outside of the local broadcast area for Comcast/New Haven, Comcast/Seymour, and Comcast/Waterbury. WPIX provides the same network programming carried on the local CW station, WCCT (Comcast/New Haven channel 11, HD channel 1020; Comcast/Seymour and Comcast Waterbury channel 7, HD channel 1020). Other WPIX syndicated programming is also available on other local stations that remain on the local TV lineup. We understand that WPIX’s news, weather, sports and other content may be of interest to our customers. While this station will no longer be available, customers can view content for WPIX at www.pixll.com.
Please feel free to contact me at 860-505-3477 if you have any questions regarding this filing.
Sincerely,
Sharon L. Codeanne Director, Government & Regulatory Affairs
**********************************************************************************
5. Correspondence: none to enter.
6. Election for CTAC Officers:
The next meeting on August 7 will schedule the election of new CTAC officers, especially
as our Chairperson Tad Weinstein is resigning the CTAC because he has moved his residence to Milford which is outside of this CTAC franschise district. A replacement for Chair is thus
needed as a priority.
7. Membership
New advisors for CTAC are needed to fill vancant seats on the council. Members are
requested to inquire to activists for volunteers.
History question: Laurel Coleman asks all members present how they were individually
recruited to join CTAC. Tad Weinstein, Peaches Quinn, and George Alexander have all been
members for more than 20 years. Johnes Ruta began coming to meetings in 2007 to request
Comcast to carry the Classic Arts Showcase (CAS) free satellite feed on the Comcast lineup.
CAS is a cultural channel featuring short videos of classical music concerts, ballet, and cultural
stories. Comcast never fulfilled this request, but Johnes, an independent art curator for the
New Haven Free Public Library at that time, was subsequently appointed in 2008 as a CTAC
Advisor by New Haven Mayor John DeStefano. In 2008, New Haven Citizens Television (CTV)
subsequently offers CAS coverage in many vacant time slots on their program lineup.
[ Note to Joe Schofield from Johnes Ruta: SINCERE THANKS for this promotion of general culture !! ]
8. Issues: Privacy Rights.
Discussion on general cable television in the present age of WiFi, Public WiFi, FireStick technology,
and other Apps, Comcast X1 programming, Netflix, Amazon Prime, et cetera.
In the Connecticut Legislative representation, promotion of Net Neutrality, and maximum privacy
protections are issues to be observed and promoted to cable franchises with CTAC concensus.
Next meeting Wednesday, August 7, 2019 at 6:00PM.
Meeting adjourned: 7:11 PM.
June 7th , 2019 Minutes respectfully submitted by Johnes Ruta (New Haven) Acting Secretary.
August 2nd, 2019