June 6, 2012 Minutes

 

MINUTES of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven and West Haven

Meeting Date: June 6, 2012

 

Call to order: A Regular meeting of the CTAC was held at CTV, Hamden, Connecticut on June 6, 2012. President Tad Weinstein presiding. Don Levy acting secretary.

 

Members in attendance:

 

George Alexander, H, Treasurer

Don Levy, H

Johnes Ruta, NH

Peaches Quinn, NH

Joyce Listro, NH

Tad Weinstein, WH Chair

 

Sharon (Comcast)

 

Chairman Weinstein called the meeting to order at 6:02.

 

Approval of Minutes of May 2, 2012. Motion was made by Johnes and seconded by Joyce. Motion carried.

 

Commission decided to ask Jen to write a letter to PURA with regard to a request on the part of a citizen with regard the program schedule concerning the CTV program “One World Institute.”  The letter to PURA would explain:

 

1) that CTAC in conjunction with CTV had provided the citizen with the means to view “One World Institute” using the on demand capability of the CTV system.

 

2) The producer of “One World Institute,” however, would not authorize CTV to cablecast “One World Institute” as part of the on demand programming. And therefore

 

3) Having provided a reasonable opportunity to meet the citizen’s complaint which was effectively vetoed by the program’s producer CTAC has fulfilled its obligation to address this complaint. CTAC requests that PURA consider any further action on its part unnecessary and to dismiss this cause of action once for all.

 

A concern was raised that it may be difficult for some viewers to determine the schedule of CTV programs. It was decided to ask Joe Schofield of CTV to review the cable outlet’s current manner of posting its schedule in order to provide ease of use to subscribers.

 

There was a discussion regarding when to reschedule the July 4 regularly scheduled meeting. Numerous individual scheduling conflicts arose which made it difficult to arrive at a new date for the July meeting. A decision was postponed and the July date was to be determined via email communications.

 

Sharon presented the most recent iteration of the Comcast schedule indicating several channels which would no longer be carried, along with a handful of new choices. Sharon also reported on the winners of the annual Comcast Leaders & Achievers Scholarships.

 

Board members were concerned that the promised cable allowing CTV programs to be seen by AT&T subscribers had not yet been installed. The Committee decided to ask Joe Schofield to report on the progress of establishing such a link.

 

A protracted discussion ensued regarding the final report, dated April 4, of PURA, concerning the advisability of mandating or at least of providing incentives for the sharing of local programs generated by Connecticut Cable franchisees. PURA’s position was that however beneficial it might be to encourage such cross-system sharing its mandate did not warrant any action on its part. The report proposed that any system which sought a broader dissemination of its locally-generated programs was free to do so using online file sharing resources such as YouTube.

 

There was further discussion of an earlier proposal to use CTAC resources to fund a video contest for middle schools. Issues raised included which schools were to be included, the size and number of the awards, precisely how to make eligible schools and students aware of the contest and criteria for determining who were to be judges and what standards would be used to judge video projects. Action was deferred.

 

Meeting was adjourned at 7:00

 

Respectfully submitted by. D. Levy, acting CTAC secretary