trate the situation. As soon as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, took interest in this particular discipline the Dutch role
and influence diminished to the lowest possible level.

Because of radical changes in subsidy policies, local television makers are now forced to invest time energy and re-
sources -that should be put into generating better programming- into peddling bill boards in the title role, in exchange for
charitable donations from coffee shops and other local business to pay for their programming. All of this only because
“everything should be privatised.” All in the name of privatisation the latest trend, the latest craze (for the kick of privati-
sation) and all of this in the land of plenty. A lot of the austerity measures imposed by the government are also partly due
to the negligence of some of the bigger local programmers that been profiting from the situation for too long and concen-
trate in generating a minimum of programs, of a minimum quality, that are rerun time after time for hours and hours while
operating as organisations with gigantic bureaucratic infrastructures.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Salto on the other hand has outstretched too much and has run out of time without outlining a clear idea about the differ-
ences between "Public Access" and "Special Interest” and, in fact, managing two half empty channels that are either pub-
lic access nor special interest, at a very dangerous moment, in a very competitive market where television frequencies are
@ precious commodity. It is logical that it was in Salto's interest to take that extra channel when the opportunity arrived
and they should be commended for that but it is really a shame that they were not prepared for it and programmers were
arbitrarily divide among public access (meaning amateurs) and special interest (meaning semi- professionals) Since the
introduction of A1 it is like those that cablecast in that channel are of a better sort than the rest and nobody knows why
except fact that the Alers receive a lot more subsidy than the others.

THE PLAYERS

There are already noises about A2000 (Amsterdam cable operator) wanting to reclaim one of Salto's channels, politicians
(many of them enjoyed hours and hours of free, local air time throughout the 90s) are talking about centralising all local
programming in one channel. Some of them even think that now is time to privatise all local initiatives to “put them in the
market and get the investment back" so Salto will soon be Confronting considerable contenders. MTV first and than CNN
where no match for A2000 during negotiations on transmission fees. They both are out of the A2000 only package for
Amsterdam cable subscribers (and there are no other options no other cable operators) so Amsterdam, one of the European
media capitals, does not have any of these two important networks. Ina year of negotiations, the local government has not
managed to reach and agreement with A2000 to get these two networks back in the package. When the time comes Salto
will be an easy prey for the cable operator.

A2000 is not the one to be blamed for any of this, on the contrary, until now they have behaved properly and mildly; after
all, they are a commercial operation offering a variety of services: cable radio & television & special packages and PPV,
cable modem for internet and other on-line services, fibber optics, telephone, etc. They operates in an open, aggressive
and competitive market. The ones that are to blame are those that decided to privatize the Amsterdam cable operator.

WHY PRIVATISATION

KTA (Cable Television Amsterdam) the city owned cable operator was put in the market in 1995 and shortly after sold for
aprox. Fl 700000000 (+ “e 320000000) Bill Gates, Philips, Bell Telephone and other powerful multinationals are mayor
share holders. After been sold KTA became A2000. KTA was originally sold to pay for Ijburg, a new development in the out-
skirts of Amsterdam, an initiative challenged by many local, pressure groups that resulted in a referendum. Whatever deal
was made was the wrong deal (and who knows, may be there was no good deal because as old guard, true socialists have
always maintained: “public services are not for sale") In any case, the deal was closed by Frank de Graaf than the
Economics City Commissioner (Alderman) in the Amsterdam City Council and now a days the Dutch Minister of Defence.
The hope of many is that if there is a war he wont deal with it in the way that he dealt with A2000. Today cable television,
a public service is run as an efficient, commercial operation and “Amsterdamers” have no choice but to leave with it.

bi | A, A