Homer Designates Center for the Arts as a Public, Educational, and Government Access Management Organization – Allows Creation of Public Access Tv Channel

At Tuesday’s Homer Trustees meeting, the village passed a resolution to designate the Center for the Arts of Homer as a Public, Educational, and Government (PEG) Access Management Organization. The designation now gives the Center for the Arts legal control of operating a public access channel through Spectrum.

Under current state law, cable companies like Spectrum, must designate a channel for public and neutral programming within a municipalities jurisdiction. The resolution passed allows the Center for the Arts to act as the official operator and manage the public access channel from Spectrum. Prior, Spectrum operated the channel. Scheduling and content management will now be handled by the Center for the Arts.

Some of the programming planned for the public access channel will include the broadcast of village board and school board meetings, coverage of high school sporting events, and eventual programming from other not-for-profits such as the Phillips Free Library, Fire & Police Departments, and more. A website will also be created for those without cable to watch content online at no cost.

The public access channel does come with strict regulations including a ban of any commercial advertising or accepting payments for airtime.

Following the village’s passage of the resolution, a formal letter will be sent to Spectrum informing the company the Center for the Arts is the designated operator. Both the Center and Spectrum will work together to establish the necessary technical and procedural work. A potential kickoff for the channel is anticipated this Spring.