Oceanic Cable  has grown from a small provider of a few dozen cable channels in the 1980s to a vast entertainment portal: nearly 400 digital channels, along with high-definition and interactive offerings and more than 70 analog channels.

Building on a franchise from the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, it's expanded to have a near-monopoly lock on Oahu's television sets.

As part of its license to operate, Oceanic also paid roughly $5 million in 2009 - a small fraction of what it earns - for what has been an innovation in Hawaii television: Public-access channels and services through Olelo Community Television.

Olelo is more than a few channels in the 50s featuring badly lit Neighborhood Board meetings and odd shows about AP Calculus.

Those channels, and seven media centers across Oahu, provide the public with unique access to government hearings, an educational programming network and video training for students and the public alike, allowing them to broadcast their work over the public airwaves.

It's been a fair trade for Oceanic's control over a valuable public right-of-way. Now Oceanic is now seeking a 20-year renewal of its franchise. Given how it's expanded and profited in the last 20 years, it seems reasonable to expect that Oceanic would be willing to accommodate an expansion of Olelo as well.

But some public officials, including U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, worry that Oceanic wants to get off cheaply — to offer little more than what it pays for now, without giving Olelo the ability to take full advantage of the emerging technologies that Oceanic will implement and profit from. They also want Olelo's channels to be as easily accessible, with the same quality, as Oceanic's for-profit ones. Naturally, politicians support Olelo because it gives them an unfiltered bully pulpit.

Nonetheless, they have a valid concern.

Oceanic has been less than enthusiastic about expanding and improving PEG (Public, Educational and Governmental) channel access, even though it can, and does, pass on the cost to its subscribers.

As a public agency, DCCA has an obligation to protect the public interest. It will make a decision on Oceanic's renewal application before the year is out. Let's hope DCCA gets its - or rather, our - money's worth.

Tags: Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Hawaii, high-definition, interactive, Oceanic Cable, Olelo, television, Time Warner

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