Tax on Streaming Could Help Local Public Access TV

Above, Franklin TV HQ on Hutchinson Street.

Communities like Franklin have benefited from a long-standing bit of federal legislation, dating to 1984, that lets municipalities, in effect, put a tax of up to 5 percent on the revenue of traditional cable TV providers operating in their municipality. Ultimately, subscribers bear the cost.

But in an era when more and more “cord cutters” are either going without or relying on internet-based streaming services, those revenues have been on a downward trend. And that could strike at the heart of local services, like Franklin TV, which provides community programming and also supports many of the needs of the town government, such as broadcasting Town Council meetings.

According to an article posted this week by Nieman Reports, and on bill information posted by the Massachusetts House and Senate, two bills are currently being considered on Beacon Hill. The “Act to Modernize Funding For Community Media Programming” has a version in the House, H.74. A similar measure, S.34, is moving in the Senate.

Pete Fasciano, Director of Franklin TV, said that Massachusetts legislators seek to ensure that streaming services (Netflix, Apple+, Prime, Paramount, et al) meet the same financial obligation to support local media that the cable companies (Comcast, Verizon) currently do.

“Cord-cutting of cable services has increased markedly in recent years. Franklin.TV's revenues have dropped by 15% since 2017 and continue to decline while our operating costs have risen by even more,” he explained. “The state's legislation will help stabilize funding for our local coverage of school sports, civic events and government meetings. All in, Franklin.TV covers four-to-five hundred such events annually and most are carried live,” he continued.

H. 74, “is a bill that is worth considering as it would bolster accessibility, civic engagement, and transparency of government operations,” said State Rep. Jeff Roy. At a time of dwindling newspaper coverage, this legislation would help municipal TV studios to continue covering and broadcasting matters of great interest to citizens. “It would simply replace the current fees on cable companies and requiring streaming services to step up to the plate,” he continued. “I look forward to reviewing the committee’s report on the proposal,” he added.

Fasciano cited a pioneer measure in Illinois with a similar structure and noted that Massachusetts is often among those bellwether states that lead the way in modernizing their legislation to keep pace with changing times and technology.

“We applaud the work of the Massachusetts Telecom Committee, the House and Senate and their efforts to timely and reasonably address the needs of local media centers,” said Fasciano. “Without this legislation, smaller communities are at risk of seeing their local PEG media services merge into regional centers (less local) or vanish entirely,” he concluded.