Samantha McGirr
The Public Press
City officials have chosen Bay Area Video Coalition to assume operations of the public access television stations in San Francisco, Media Alliance reports.
According to BAVC’s Web site, the organization is a nonprofit media arts center with a mission “to inspire social change by enabling the sharing of diverse stories through art, education and technology.” In a narrative addressing its new acquisition, BAVC emphasized the opportunity to explore what it calls “transmedia,” or “the blurring between television and internet and between producer and consumer.”
Since 1987, the San Francisco Community Television Corporation has managed Access SF, the city’s public access television operation. Through a grant established in 1999, the main source of Access SF’s funding came from taxes the city placed on local cable operators. On June 30, the grant agreement expired, and, due to budget constraints, the city opted not to continue operating Access SF at the same funding level.
Earlier this year, the city initiated a Request for Proposals process to find a local non-profit to manage Access SF at significantly lower funding levels. The San Francisco Community Television Corporation opted not to bid, and the city’s Department of Technology chose BAVC as the recipient of the next public access grant agreement.
The city has, however, extended its current expiring grant agreement with the community television corporation to continue management of public access on a limited basis until Sept. 30.
