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An Open Letter to the Legislature
by Pete Fasciano
Franklin TV Executive Director
As you know, local PEG studios like Franklin.TV are nonprofit charities -
funded by law via cable subscriber access fees.
As more subscribers 'cut the cord', our revenue drops.
In 2025, we are now below the revenue we had 15 years ago in 2010.
Inflation has raised our costs in that same time period beyond an
additional 50%.The MA Telecom Committee on Beacon Hill has a hearing on July 10th.
They are discussing legislation to mitigate our falling revenue via
streaming TV access fees.An Act to modernize funding for community media programming
The House version is H.74
The Senate version is S.41Some believe that we are irrelevant - a relic of old legacy TV service.
We are definitely not that. Today, most PEG studios provide free live
streaming for local community groups and their events, school sports,
government meetings and much more.A letter of support from your organization to the committee legislators
would be a great help.
Simply describe our work with you and how we have been helpful -
and if so, even beyond producing any TV programs.If the pending legislation fails, we will soon be forced to reduce
our current level of community engagement and support.We were given short notice and wish to show support from our community.
Below is an email list of direct legislative committee contacts.
Please send your letter of support to them and please cc me as well.
We are testifying before the committee on Jul 10th.
We hope to have them report out the pending bills favorably for a vote.
* * * * *
In addition: Our income is currently at or below $600K, but the fair market value of all the community media programs, video-on-demand streams, audio podcasts and other projects that we produce annually is over $1,500,000.00. If we were not able to continue, the cost of hiring commercial media services becomes prohibitive for the town, the schools, and most of the charitable organizations that we serve.
