Public-access television

Public-access television is a cable television service that allows members of the public to use a cable company's facilities and equipment to create and broadcast their own content. This service is provided to the public free of charge on a first-come, first-served, non-discriminatory basis, and there are very lax censorship rules. However, funding for public access is typically very limited, so the content and production value of material broadcast on such channels is often of very low quality (see John Daker). Even so, public access TV can be an important outlet for the interests of underserved groups within a community. Occasionally, terrestrial (over-the-air) broadcasters also provide time for public-access programming.

External links

• Bill Olson's History of Public Access
• The Global Village CAT: Worldwide links to 600 Community & Public Access Television sites
• Douglas Kellner's history of Public Access at the Museum of Television
• Public Access TV weblog
• On the different kinds of access television
• The Peoples Channel, public-access station in Chapel Hill, NC
• Cambridge Community Television, public access media center in Cambridge, MA