Cox to Bill City Residents for Public Programming

Beginning in June, Cox Communications customers in the city of Fredericksburg will see a new 45 cent charge on their bill. The new charge is designed to cover the costs of PEG fees paid to the city. PEG fees, short for public, educational and governmental, are designed to support the costs of public access programming provided by the city of Fredericksburg.

Until now, the Cox Communications had been paying the PEG fees to the city without billing city customers. The new charges are not designed to recover the costs of PEG fees already paid. 

Fredericksburg took in $14,711 in PEG fees last year and is on track to receive a similar amount in fiscal year 2011, according to a memo distributed to the City Council. 

Cox cable customers can receive four local access channels; Channel 18 is Local Educational Access, Channel 20 is Local Origination, Channel 24 is Local Government Access and Channel 25 is Local Public Access.