Council awards $75,000 in AT&T settlement to KSAR
By Kara Chalmers
Saratoga's City Council decided on April 19, to give most of the $95,000 settlement from the city's lawsuit against AT&T directly to the Saratoga Community Access Cable Television Foundation.
The city, which had filed suit on behalf of its community access television station, KSAR, in September, settled its case with AT&T (formerly TCI cable) on March 3. The city filed suit because the telecommunications giant bumped KSAR from its long-held location at Channel 6 to the less desirable Channel 15.
As part of the settlement agreement, AT&T will run $10,000 in television advertisements to promote KSAR at its new location on Channel 15, in addition to the $95,000. Also, if AT&T tries to change KSAR's channel again, unless compelled to by federal "must carry" laws, Saratoga will receive $150,000 in damages.
Saratoga already has paid about $20,000 from the total in legal fees, including those to Saratoga's City Attorney, who works under a contract rather than as an in-house attorney. The City Council decided unanimously at its meeting on April 19, to hand the rest of the money, about $75,000, directly to KSAR.
The foundation's board will spend the funds on a new logo, printing new letterhead, stationery and business cards, repainting the logo on the KSAR van, changing all broadcast station identifications and redoing its website. It estimates all these direct costs to total about $11,000.
The board will spend $29,000 advertising the channel change and publicizing the new location at Channel 15. These advertising expenses would be no more than $5,000 this year and $3,000 for each of the next eight years.
The advertising, some of which will be print advertising, will directly redress the intangible loss of viewers that KSAR has incurred since the channel change, according to community access coordinator Tessa McGoldrick. She said KSAR has never before had an advertising budget.
The board also will spend $11,000 on installing equipment in the Saratoga Adult Care Center, where some city government meetings are held and televised. Five thousand dollars will be spent to replace the existing video bulletin board system used for KSAR broadcasts, $9,500 to upgrade studio production equipment, $6,000 for improving broadcast equipment and $3000 to replace equipment in the van.
In September, when AT&T booted the stations, it did so to make room for San Jose's KICU, which is located at Channel 6 in many Bay Area cities. KICU was on Channel 8 before September.
Channel 6 is a desirable location for any station, since it is between two network channels, five and seven.
AT&T held that under federal "must carry" laws, the company had to comply with KICU's wishes. But from the beginning, attorneys for the cities have said that must-carry laws should not apply in this case since AT&T already had a contract to carry KSAR on Channel 6. That contract would not lapse until September 2008.
In its suit, the city joined Los Gatos, whose station, KCAT, was also moved from its Channel 6 position. Los Gatos received an identical settlement.
At its meeting on April 19, the council issued a proclamation for the Heller, Ehrman, White and McAuliffe law firm, which assisted the city with the case pro bono. Elizabeth Rader, Joshua Masur and Stan Young were commended for volunteering their time and expertise, and achieving a beneficial outcome.
According to the proclamation, the firm provided the city with specialized legal services it needed for the case.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
