Durham public access television is staying on the air an additional month, after the Durham Committee for Community Media announces there has been a successful negotiation with Time Warner to extend a new deadline of Feb. 9. [Changed from original post, which stated the committee did the negotiating; it was primarily Durham City Attorney Patrick Baker.]
Public access was originally scheduled to go off the air Dec. 31, 2008. The committee is working with faith-based organizations and other community groups to finalize an agreement with the telecommunications company to keep public access on the air.
The public portion of the PEG channels (public, educational and government) has shared Channel 8 with government programming; if an agreement can be hammered out, public access will move to another, yet undetermined channel nearby.
The committee is asking for $55,000 from the city and the same amount from the county; that money had already been allocated to Time Warner for public access, said committee member Theresa El-Amin, but the company didn’t spend it.
The committee held several public meetings about the future of the channel, which the Indy reported on in October.
The issue is expected to be on the agenda for next week’s Joint City-County Committee meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 9 a.m. at Durham City Hall.
Read the proposal here:proposalfordurhampublicaccesschannel
Below is a link to the Support Durham Public-Access Television & Community Media Center petition.
