AMHERST — Continued cable television cord-cutting by consumers is creating financial challenges for community access television, a problem compounded by Federal Communications Commission rules that appear to favor cable companies over the stations that broadcast public meetings, municipal events and assorted programs.

To confront this challenge, Massachusetts Sen. Edward J. Markey, as a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, recently reintroduced the “Protecting Community Television Act” with committee colleague Sen. Tammy Baldwin. D-Wisconsin, and Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, D-California, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The legislation takes aim at the rules, created in 2019 under President Donald Trump, giving cable companies the ability to put a price tag on in-kind contributions they provide to communities, including for what are known as public, educational and government, or PEG channels. This means that cable companies can then subtract the ascribed value of those in-kind contributions from the franchising fees they pay to operate.

Such legislation, says Amherst Media Executive Director Jim Lescault, is a critical step toward protecting the viability of media centers that may be struggling with their funding.

Lescault said the existing rules are compounding the financial reality access stations find themselves in.

“It will really hurt all media centers, especially since they (the cable companies) and they alone decide the value of those services,” Lescault said.

Alex LaMarche, director of Hadley Media, said there is already a loss of revenue from the cable companies, and the new rules may create more trouble.

“This is not an isolated problem, it’s happening across the country whether or not you are nonprofit, city, town, or in some cases, county run,” LaMarche said. “So anything that is going to put a hindrance in our funding moving forward will make our situation worse.”

At its core, Markey’s bill looks to ensure access channels have the resources they need to keep producing content for their viewers, rather than forcing cities and towns to decide between supporting PEG programming and paying for other public services, like schools, public safety buildings, and libraries, in their cable franchise agreements.

“At a time when news and media have become more consolidated than ever before, we must work to uphold local access to public, education and government channels for every household in our country,” Markey said in a statement announcing the legislation.

The federal legislation has support from the Alliance for Community Media, National Association of Counties and National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, among others.

Another endorsing the bill is David Gauthier, president of Massachusetts Community Media, Inc. Gathier said in a statement that subscriptions to cable services in Massachusetts are down more than 20% since 2015.

“Too often in a world of rapidly-evolving technology, community media is viewed as a relic of the past, whereas the truth is that our services are more in demand than ever,” Gauthier said.

Markey’s efforts come as state legislation titled “Modernizing Funding for Access Centers” would expand state funding for such outlets by including revenue from streaming services. That derives from a bill filed by Rep. Joan Meschino, D-Hull, and Rep. Matthew Muratore, R-Plymouth, known as HD 215, which aims to expand that 5% revenue paid to the state for distribution to towns to include streaming entertainment operators. A similar bill was filed during the last legislative session but failed to make it out of the Senate after passing the House of Representatives.

Community access channels, which in the region also include Northampton Open Media and Easthampton Media, have relied on state funding that comes from up to 5% of local cable providers’ revenue. But with declining cable subscriptions and rising operating costs, the amount of money that community media receives has dropped over the past several years.

LaMarche, who previously worked in community access in Granby, said he was able to operate there as a nonprofit and fundraise and use other ideas to bring in more money. Because Hadley is municipally run, his options are more limited, he said.

The issues facing access stations come even though there is greater demand for services that has developed through the pandemic. Since August, when LaMarche started, Hadley has seen a boost in viewership, evidence by those who watch on the YouTube channel, up nearly 75% from 2021 to 2022, and about 6,200 views through most of January 2023, already about one fifth of the 30,700 views for all of 2022.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.]]>