TV23, Vicksburg’s public access cable channel, is looking to hit the big time.

The city’s information technology department and the TV23 staff are gearing up to add another broadcasting outlet for information about the city — U-Verse, AT&T’s fiber optic television, Internet and telephone system.

Billy Gordon, the city’s IT director, said the move was presented informally to Mayor George Flaggs Jr. and Aldermen Michael Mayfield and Willis Thompson, adding they supported the idea.

Going on U-Verse, he said, will extend the local channel’s potential audience to include the system’s subscribers in Hinds, Madison, Rankin, Simpson, Warren and Yazoo counties. “I guess we will double our viewers,” he said.

TV23 currently is carried over Vicksburg Video’s public access channel 23, making it available to about 8,000 cable subscribers. He did not know how many viewers are on U-Verse.

Gordon said 23’s access to U-Verse was made possible through a public education and government channel, or PEG. A PEG channel is a non-commercial, government access channel that can be required under a franchise agreement between a broadcast company and a city, and restricted to only public education and governmental programs.

Gordon said a PEG was included in AT&T’s franchise agreement with the city to get access to rights of way and easements to run fiber optic and other communications cables.

“I think we in the past thought that was a little out of our reach, but we started investigating and then we struck up some conversations with AT&T,” he said. “Basically, what we had to do was buy an encoder and provide the bandwidth to get it to AT&T, and it will show up on their public education and government channel.”

He said the $3,000 encoder was the only equipment required to connect with U-Verse, although new amplifiers were bought to improve video and audio transmissions.

The PEG channel, he said, is not specifically designated for Vicksburg, which means other local governments or school systems can also get programs on the channel.

Because the new channel will not be 23, Gordon said, the city may have to change the station’s name. Programming will also have to change for U-Verse, eliminating many of private business-type programs, like ribbon cuttings, now on 23. The business-related programs will stay on the cable channel, but not be on U-Verse.

“We will present the (Board of Mayor and Aldermen) and other public meetings,” said William Nettle, TV23 director, “but we are looking at other government-related programs that can promote Vicksburg to the areas outside the city.”

That programming, he said, would involve information on city-sponsored events like RiverFest and Chamber of Commerce programs, and help promote tourism attractions like the Vicksburg National Military Park. Flaggs on April 25, appointed a committee of members of the city’s economic development groups to discuss the best way to use the channel and stay in the PEG channel regulations.

“We’re waiting on the board and the committee the mayor organized to come back with suggestions,” Gordon said. “Technically, we’re ready. All the technical side of it is complete. We’ll wait and see what they suggest as far as possible program. We’ve already tested it a couple of times and it works fine.”