CCTV Channel 17 will be doing a live call-in TV show tonight discussing Burlington Telecom's recent decision to pull the English language Al Jazreera network from the municipally owned and operated cable provider's channel line-up.  According to the CCTV site...

Who decides what Burlington Telecom cable subscribers watch and how is that decision arrived at? If you are concerned about Burlington Telecom's proposed pulling of Al Jazeera network from its line-up, come to Ch. 17 studios this Friday at 5:00pm to be part of a public conversation, there will be an opportunity for public comment and questions. Greg Eppler-Wood, Chairman of the Cable Advisory Committee and the Burlington Telecommunications Advisory Committee along with free speech advocate Sandy Baird, will talk about the process and the challenges of free speech within a municipally-owned cable provider. Where - 294 North Winooski Avenue, Burlington, 2nd Floor More Info - Sam Mayfield, smayfield@cctv.org 862.3966 ext. 19

It's an interesting question because given BT's municipal department status, there are actual 1st amendment considerations here.  Still, I think it's fair to do away with that part of the argument.  If we argue that BT can't remove Al Jazeera from the line-up because the city of Burlington would be infringing on 1st amendment freedom of speech provisions (who's freedom of speech is being infringed exactly remains an open question), then by extension, any decision by the cable provider to not run any type of content is beholden to the same argument.  I think that in order to operate efficiently, BT needs to be able to operate by the same rules as a standard commercial cable operator like Comcast or Charter.  If BT chooses to say "no thank you" to Joe's Cable Channel, they should not be brought in front of a federal judge on 1st amendment grounds for the decision.

Once we do away with actual 1st amendment concerns, then as a commercial provider of cable services, BT is free to offer any channel line-up they please, for any reason.  It's then up to the subscribers to decide if the way BT chooses to operate makes them a better or a worse choice than the alternatives (Comcast, satellite, broadcast TV, no TV service).

The best course of action here for all BT subscribers and potential subscribers, regardless of which side of this argument they fall on, is to make their opinions known to the powers that be at BT.  The more BT has a sense of what the subscribers want, the more likely it is that they will act accordingly.  Al Jazeera was pulled because of subscriber complaints, so BT obviously listens to their customers.  One would think that if an audience exists for the content, BT will run it.

Of course, if an audience for Al Jazeera exists (and I think it's pretty clear that it does) and BT still decides to axe the channel, then something else is at work in their decision-making and subscribers should be asking some hard questions. Questions like,

• If you pulled Al Jazeera because of subscriber complaints, and that many subscribers (or more) have asked for it to remain, what is your justification for pulling it, exactly?
• Will you pull other channels out of the line-up because of similar complaints?  Would you pull Fox News if you received enough emails?  If not, what's different about that situation?
• Don't customers have the ability to block unwanted channels themselves (as required by law)?  Why pull an entire channel so nobody in the community can see it?  Why not just instruct customers who don't want the content in how to block it?

I would love to hear these questions addressed by someone at BT.