Do you want to watch “Bromfield Now,” the 5 p.m. daily student-run news program, on your cable TV in beautifully detailed, full-screen high definition (HD)? Or watch an HD version of any of Harvard’s many government meetings and community/cultural events on channels 191 or 192—Harvard’s community-access TV (HCTV) channels? Well, you can’t, even though they were all shot in HD.
This is because Charter refuses to offer HD broadcast channels to community-access TV stations. Charter is not alone. This is the case for nearly every community-access TV station in Massachusetts via any cable provider.
To change this, a new bill titled “An Act Supporting Community Access Television” has been filed in the state Legislature. This bill requires all cable companies in Massachusetts to offer HD broadcast channels with real channel guide information to all community-access TV stations, making them full broadcast equals to other stations on cable.
Harvard’s Community Cable Access Committee urges residents to contact our representatives (James Eldridge, 617-722-1120, james.eldridge@masenate.gov, and Jennifer Benson, 617-722-2014, jennifer.benson@mahouse.gov) and urge them to support, or co-sponsor, “An Act Supporting Community Access Television,” Senate bill SD1491 and House bill HD2342.
Richard Steele
for the
HCTV Committee
