HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2342        FILED ON: 1/19/2017

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2682

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_________________

PRESENTED BY:

Ruth B. Balser and Antonio F. D. Cabral

_________________

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act supporting community access television.

_______________

PETITION OF:

 

Name:

District/Address:

Date Added:

Ruth B. Balser

12th Middlesex

1/19/2017

Antonio F. D. Cabral

13th Bristol

1/20/2017

William M. Straus

10th Bristol

1/27/2017

Carolyn C. Dykema

8th Middlesex

1/19/2017

David T. Vieira

3rd Barnstable

1/27/2017

Carmine L. Gentile

13th Middlesex

1/20/2017

Alan Silvia

7th Bristol

12/20/2017

Claire D. Cronin

11th Plymouth

12/20/2017

Angelo L. D'Emilia

8th Plymouth

12/20/2017

Daniel J. Hunt

13th Suffolk

12/20/2017

Mark J. Cusack

5th Norfolk

12/20/2017

F. Jay Barrows

1st Bristol

12/20/2017

Josh S. Cutler

6th Plymouth

12/20/2017

Thomas P. Walsh

12th Essex

12/20/2017

Mathew Muratore

1st Plymouth

12/20/2017

Hannah Kane

11th Worcester

12/20/2017

Brendan P. Crighton

Third Essex

12/20/2017

James M. Cantwell

4th Plymouth

12/20/2017

William C. Galvin

6th Norfolk

12/20/2017

Thomas J. Calter

12th Plymouth

12/20/2017

Daniel Cahill

10th Essex

12/20/2017

David M. Nangle

17th Middlesex

1/25/2017

Jason M. Lewis

Fifth Middlesex

12/20/2017

Smitty Pignatelli

4th Berkshire

12/20/2017

Elizabeth A. Poirier

14th Bristol

12/20/2017

Carole A. Fiola

6th Bristol

12/20/2017

David F. DeCoste

5th Plymouth

12/20/2017

Paul McMurtry

11th Norfolk

12/20/2017

Kay Khan

11th Middlesex

12/20/2017

John J. Lawn, Jr.

10th Middlesex

12/20/2017

Jonathan Hecht

29th Middlesex

12/20/2017

James B. Eldridge

Middlesex and Worcester

12/20/2017

Randy Hunt

5th Barnstable

12/20/2017

John W. Scibak

2nd Hampshire

12/20/2017

Marjorie C. Decker

25th Middlesex

12/20/2017

Diana DiZoglio

14th Essex

12/20/2017

Chris Walsh

6th Middlesex

12/20/2017

Bruce J. Ayers

1st Norfolk

12/20/2017

John H. Rogers

12th Norfolk

12/20/2017

Thomas M. Stanley

9th Middlesex

12/20/2017

Kenneth I. Gordon

21st Middlesex

12/20/2017

Louis L. Kafka

8th Norfolk

12/20/2017

Michelle M. DuBois

10th Plymouth

12/20/2017

RoseLee Vincent

16th Suffolk

12/20/2017

John F. Keenan

Norfolk and Plymouth

12/20/2017

Jack Lewis

7th Middlesex

12/20/2017

Solomon Goldstein-Rose

3rd Hampshire

12/20/2017

Tricia Farley-Bouvier

3rd Berkshire

12/20/2017

Sarah K. Peake

4th Barnstable

12/20/2017

Joan B.  Lovely

Second Essex

12/20/2017

Donald H. Wong

9th Essex

12/20/2017

Brian Murray

10th Worcester

12/20/2017

Gerard Cassidy

9th Plymouth

12/20/2017

Michael S. Day

31st Middlesex

12/20/2017

Kate Hogan

3rd Middlesex

12/20/2017

Michael J. Barrett

Third Middlesex

12/20/2017

James Arciero

2nd Middlesex

12/20/2017

Mary S. Keefe

15th Worcester

12/20/2017

Jerald A. Parisella

6th Essex

12/20/2017

Kathleen O'Connor Ives

First Essex

12/20/2017

James M. Murphy

4th Norfolk

12/20/2017

Patricia A. Haddad

5th Bristol

12/20/2017

Keiko M. Orrall

12th Bristol

12/20/2017

Jay D. Livingstone

8th Suffolk

12/20/2017

Daniel Cullinane

12th Suffolk

12/20/2017

Harold P. Naughton, Jr.

12th Worcester

12/20/2017

Natalie Higgins

4th Worcester

12/20/2017

Geoff Diehl

7th Plymouth

12/20/2017

Denise Provost

27th Middlesex

12/20/2017

Kevin J. Kuros

8th Worcester

12/20/2017


HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2342        FILED ON: 1/19/2017

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2682

By Representatives Balser of Newton and Cabral of New Bedford, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 2682) of Ruth B. Balser, Antonio F. D. Cabral and others for legislation to require cable television operators to provide public, educational, and governmental access channels.  Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy.

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

 

_______________

In the One Hundred and Ninetieth General Court
(2017-2018)

_______________

 

An Act supporting community access television.

 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 166A of the General Laws,  as appearing in the 2014 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after section 22 the following section:-

Section 23. For the purpose of this section a cable television operator shall include multichannel video programming distributors as defined by federal law in 47 USC section 522 (7).

All cable television operators shall provide public, educational, and governmental access channels and connections so that operators of said channels may deliver, and subscribers may receive, public, educational, and governmental access channel signals equivalent in quality to local broadcast signals carried on the system, in the same formats as the primary local broadcast signals are delivered. All cable television operators shall simultaneously carry each public, educational and governmental  access channel in both a high definition format and a standard digital format in the same manner as local broadcast channels are provided. 

Further, all cable television operators shall provide public, educational and governmental access channels access to electronic programming guides so that subscribers may record, select and view public, educational and governmental access channels, in the same manner local broadcast channels and information provided with the local broadcast channels can be recorded, selected, viewed and used.