SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1491        FILED ON: 1/20/2017

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 1857

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_________________

PRESENTED BY:

John F. Keenan

_________________

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:

 

John F. Keenan

Norfolk and Plymouth

 

Sal N. DiDomenico

Middlesex and Suffolk

 

Michael J. Rodrigues

First Bristol and Plymouth

 

Michael D. Brady

Second Plymouth and Bristol

 

Ruth B. Balser

12th Middlesex

1/20/2017

Angelo L. D'Emilia

8th Plymouth

1/20/2017

Jason M. Lewis

Fifth Middlesex

1/23/2017

F. Jay Barrows

1st Bristol

1/24/2017

Richard J. Ross

Norfolk, Bristol and Middlesex

1/24/2017

Thomas M. McGee

Third Essex

1/25/2017

Viriato M. deMacedo

Plymouth and Barnstable

1/25/2017

Mathew Muratore

1st Plymouth

1/26/2017

Elizabeth A. Poirier

14th Bristol

1/26/2017

Smitty Pignatelli

4th Berkshire

1/27/2017

John W. Scibak

2nd Hampshire

1/30/2017

Diana DiZoglio

14th Essex

1/30/2017

Patrick M. O'Connor

Plymouth and Norfolk

1/31/2017

Mark C. Montigny

Second Bristol and Plymouth

1/31/2017

James B. Eldridge

Middlesex and Worcester

1/31/2017

Jack Lewis

7th Middlesex

2/1/2017

Joan B.  Lovely

Second Essex

2/1/2017

William N. Brownsberger

Second Suffolk and Middlesex

2/1/2017

Michael J. Barrett

Third Middlesex

2/1/2017

Dylan Fernandes

Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket

2/1/2017

Carolyn C. Dykema

8th Middlesex

2/2/2017

Kathleen O'Connor Ives

First Essex

2/2/2017

James M. Murphy

4th Norfolk

2/2/2017

Eric P. Lesser

First Hampden and Hampshire

2/3/2017

Denise Provost

27th Middlesex

2/3/2017

Walter F. Timilty

Norfolk, Bristol and Plymouth

2/3/2017

Bruce J. Ayers

1st Norfolk

2/3/2017

Chris Walsh

6th Middlesex

2/3/2017

Julian Cyr

Cape and Islands

2/10/2017

Bruce E. Tarr

First Essex and Middlesex

2/14/2017

Jennifer L. Flanagan

Worcester and Middlesex

2/22/2017

David M. Rogers

24th Middlesex

2/22/2017

James R. Miceli

19th Middlesex

10/2/2017


SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1491        FILED ON: 1/20/2017

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 1857

 

 

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.