SENATE SESSIONS TELEVISED ON TIME WARNER CABLE OF ALBANY

The programming will air on channel 17 in most homes across the Capital District and on channel 14 in Troy

Thursday, May 30, 2002

Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno today announced that the Albany Division of Time Warner Cable has agreed to carry live broadcasts of Senate sessions beginning Thursday, May 30, 2002. Televised sessions will reach nearly 400,000 homes, and an estimated one million viewers in and around the Capital Region.

"When I became Majority Leader, I said that I was committed to opening government to the people," Senator Bruno said. "Today we are bringing the legislative process into the homes of the people we represent. I encourage parents, teachers, and students to utilize these broadcasts as an educational tool, one of representative government in the 21st century."

The arrangement between the Senate and Time Warner Cable of Albany makes New York the 27th state in the nation to broadcast their proceedings via television.

"We were the first to present legislative proceedings via the Internet exactly one year ago," Senator Bruno said. "Since then, we have been working with the Cable Television Association in an effort to extend our viewership to cable TV across the state."

Senator Bruno expressed his thanks to Peter Taubkin, Vice President of Time Warner Cable Albany Division which has voluntarily provided time in their block of scheduling to air gavel-to-gavel coverage of Senate sessions and other proceedings.

Time Warner will televise Senate proceedings on Tuesdays and Thursdays from
11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and on Fridays from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. through the end of the 2002 session. The complete and uninterrupted broadcast will air on Time Warner Cable television systems throughout the Capital Region including Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady counties as well as parts of Montgomery and Schoharie counties.

The programming will air on channel 17 in most homes across the Capital District and on channel 14 in Troy and channel 16 in Cobleskill and Middleburgh. Communities that operate their cable access stations independently, including Berne, Guilderland, Watervliet and Niskayuna, will not be offering legislative broadcasts.

Senator Bruno said that the Senate will be working with the Assembly and the Cable Television Association to extend live gavel-to-gavel coverage of legislative sessions to other markets and ultimately to every region in the state.

"We will continue to provide live gavel-to-gavel webcasts of Senate sessions, offering the citizens of our state even greater accessibility to our government," Senator Bruno said. "Together with cable broadcasts we can provide New Yorkers with a better window into the legislative process and their state government."

Webcasts will continue to be available through the state Senate's Internet web site: http://www.senate.state.ny.us.

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