 Good evening and welcome back to Byline. This is a public affairs show here at Amherst Media and as you know we began last year by focusing on our new town government. We're trying to help people understand the new charter and how it was playing out in our government. And from time to time we have guests on the show who are not in the government but who are doing things that are related to the government and that's one of those things we're doing here in this show tonight. So two of the pillars of our town charter are civic engagement and transparency. What could be more transparent than broadcasting live the meetings of our publicly elected officials conducting their business. And so we have our executive director from Amherst Media Jim Lesko here today and he's going to be talking with us about the impacts of both federal and state action on our local cable stations all across the country the state and right here in Amherst. And I'll just preface it by saying that from my time in the legislature what I learned pretty quickly was that most of the regulation most of the rules and most of what happens around cable is governed at the federal level. States do have a little bit to say about it but not all that much. And as we know in our own community periodically a contract has to be negotiated with a provider and one of the pieces that it's on the table in those negotiations is what are we going to do to support our community access television. So with lots of stuff going on in Washington I think that's where we should start Jim because over the few years that we've had this new administration they've taken a new attitude to cable and the relationship between cable entities and companies and the local community. So why don't you help people understand how that all works. Okay well thank you Stan. I think if we step back for a moment for those that might not know how the funding occurs then I can speak to it it makes more sense. That each locality has an option when they have a cable provider whoever that may be come into them and saying we'd like to use your public rights away that's your telephone poles your viaducts to deliver our services to your community residents. The towns have in cities have had the opportunity to negotiate on the behalf of the citizens to get something back for that right away. And in the past one of the things I think we should point out is Amherst media to the best of our knowledge is the oldest nonprofit 44 years in the country doing this kind of work through cable companies money coming through the town to the organization as a nonprofit. We're the very oldest or among the oldest. I believe we are either the oldest or second oldest. Or second look at that. So we're way up there and the Amherst should be proud of the fact that there was people here back in the mid 70s that said this is an important issue about transparency about access to media technology which no one had TV cameras in the day we didn't have what we have. What comes with that package is a town and city could go up to five percent or less but up to five percent of the revenues based on the cable revenues the total cable total and that includes their sales or rentals there's a lot of different line items in that but so it's based on a subscriber base. And there's a fee that's passed on to the subscriber let's be honest it's not a tax but it's a fee and only the subscribers are actually paying back into this service that is being provided it's both educational use of equipment it's about the ability for anyone to have their voices heard to come in and be heard it's a real early on attempt from the mid 70s to say hey the big three networks shouldn't be the only ones talking on TV and then people were very fearful of cable coming in saying hey we don't care about your local news we want to feed you with what's happening in LA or what's happening somewhere else. And so a lot of the mayors and people like that were very up in arms originally around cable so this was a way of checking back into that. We here have just signed a contract in October of 2016 I believe it's only finally signed another and it's a ten year contract so you can get up to ten years we are getting the full five percent and we also you can negotiate for what's called capital money and capital improvement is equipment basically and that's really very important the other thing they should know is in massachusetts there's 250 ish communities that have public education in government what's normally called K. And that's out of 351 cities and towns so it's two thirds and that's pretty good. Some of them do multiple cities and towns like Plymouth has a number of towns that they serve that's right outside of them so I haven't done that breakdown but there's coverage pretty much everywhere except for those as you know the very very tiny little towns right which but even a lot of them get get coverage sure now with broadband being built out into the hill towns it's a chance for them to get more. So to move into the federal so we've always relied on all of us and when I say Amherst media it's everybody else it can be even municipally run public education government you know some towns split it the town or city runs the government the schools might run the education and the public has an element but in our case we run all three channels we're small town. The federal government has kind of left it alone they tweaked it in 1984 the cable act of 1984 but they they just improved upon it with some of the technological changes okay what I loved about the original rules was that they a cable provider could not come into a town or cities they were only going to go over to the rich community they had to show you a map and say how are you going to build out over the years to reach every home that every home has an opportunity to plug in they don't have to plug in they have an opportunity so while you're negotiating you do what's called in-kind services too and that's where this gets into the federal change at the FCC the Federal Communication Commission recently August of 2019 it's a splitboard there's three very pro cable commissioners and there's two that I would say have a very pro cable but they're also a consumer protection worried about the losses that's occurring with so three watching out for the companies and two are watching out for the people pretty much it can go down the line yeah three to two and unfortunately a couple those people voting for the cable companies were Obama appointees so I mean it's not necessarily down the line of politics partisan yeah very so what happened in August of 2019 was the FCC made a decision to give cable the right to take in-kind services and I'm going to explain what in-kind services can include discounts to the elderly veterans or the services that schools and your your governmental buildings your fire your police your town your your city government in schools are all connected what's called the internet internet i-net excuse me institutional network so we call it the i-net so they're saying all of a sudden the FCC says you know what cable you can take that in-kind and put a value to it and if you put a value to it deduct it from what you pay in your fees and when we heard that we said well who's going to say what the value is in the company said we will ourselves so it's a in-house way of looking at the fees that are getting charged to the subscribers it's not out of revenues that the companies are once again going to be able to grab it coming back out the other end and saying well you know we love offering you stand this reduction for your your elderly reduction but we're gonna have to make it up the difference on the discount from that revenue from the franchise fee so that little change of that that language could impact and will impact every access center across the country and it could be in the millions depending on some of the New York City some of the large city ones this could really hurt them but even more so the smaller ones like ourselves we're currently under three hundred thousand dollars a year here so if that's your overall budget that's our cable revenue budget that's your cable revenue okay that's down you know considerably in the fiscal year 2018 to the fiscal year 2019 we lost like 9% of our funding from cable and a lot of that has to do with what's called the the cable cutting right more people are taking from streaming they're saying I don't need cable anymore I'm gonna hire so the subscription pool is dropping it's drop as a result of fewer subscriptions there's a loss of revenue in addition there's a loss of revenue because of how they're calculating the in-kind they will if the FCC stands and we fear that this new rule could take its effect in the spring by the springtime by the time it triculates your reduction in revenue has been driven by the subscription rate not by this rule but this rule would be compounded held right it'll compound absolutely so hopefully how long how long before you know if that's gonna we were estimating well it's been challenged we have we belong to a national organization alliance for community media which have filed a suit they're getting a hearing in the sixth district court I believe St. Louis and we're trying to get stay we have the National Association of Cities the mayors League of Mayors Natoya National Association of Government and I can never remember the full acronym a lot of organizations are backing this and saying they can they too do not want this to happen this is going to devastate local programming and as you pointed out it's not just our coverage as important that is of government but it's also that the people that normally don't have a way of expressing themselves the artists the people of regardless of their income level or the language a lot of churches are shown across the country get a chance to go on the air for free through cable access so you know it's it's got this huge impact so what happened is luckily in Massachusetts our good friend senator Markey who when he was in Congress was on the telecommunications committee of one of his areas of specialty it is it is and we're very likely leading voices in that area very very lucky that he was had made it is a point to try to intercede this to interject and change the legislative the language back in the cable act back to the way it was so getting rid of that in kind change back to the original that franchise fees can only go to monetary fees not in kind okay and so he was joined by representative Anna a shoe I believe is how you say her name from California and she's been very very good in a very short period time they got 22 so cosigners on at this time as you say a lot going down in Washington and and you know and they're keeping their their their they're keeping themselves really in the mix of all the other things that are happening other than the impeachment as important as that is so we're hoping that the alliance community media and the organizations that I belong to here in Massachusetts mass access of mobilizing people mobilizing citizens and our government our local government to respond there will be a life's community media setting up an online platform for people to sign a petition I will make sure the community knows about that and letters are important the FCC when they say we just received a hundred thousand letters or something to that nature they that's a lot for them people don't normally come up out of the woodwork on that those issues so the legislation that they filed what would it effectively do what is it going to say and what would be effective it be it says so little it just puts the language back in the way it was so basically it overrules the the bureaucracy and puts it into law which then means the bureaucracy can't skirt it they have to follow that and so you'd be going back to the status quo actually be maintaining because it hasn't yet been through the that was the argument upfront well it also hasn't been resolved in the court so right there's a stay presumably and therefore they can't implement it right so you haven't gotten the hit yet not yet and we're you know this just came out this is evolving as we speak I'm sure I'll get a phone call today that says yeah you missed this point but it's it's really a lobbyists parade over the next six 12 months as they try to get this piece of legislation through because the cable companies are going to oppose it who else is going to oppose it you mentioned who will be supporting you who else are you going up the telecoms because the telecoms are in there in the industry I mean you're looking at Verizon really you don't think of them as much of cable but they still do provide some services but it's really that over the line streaming that a lot of them and don't forget companies like Comcast who were under right they bought NBC for a reason that was a broadcast distribution production and bought Universal Studios for the same reason production and distribution they bought Hulu very early on as a streaming component for their materials Netflix is all of a sudden making movies these people are using the same lines as of the other people that the cable has to pay us the times it's so they're all going into the they're all going into all aspects of the telecom business same thing happened with banks and insurance so everybody wants to be in the insurance business of the bankers went into the insurance business and there's a big fight that's constantly going on between those two industries because the lines get blurred so back to cable you're you if everything goes well in Washington you'll be able to block that change the change of the in kind which would really take resources out of every community television station in the country immediately if it was implemented but as you said who else will be up against this it'll be all those companies I just mentioned Netflix and Amazon and these are monsters that's your biggest current threat at the federal level is there anything else that's that you guys are worrying about before we focus on what we can do at the state level well the federal level is always a challenge you know because this administration it is truly more than ever the corporations have a lot of access and they're reading their their papers and implementing so when we get the support of the Congress specifically and senators like Warren signed on and also Bernie Sanders signed on and you know a number of four of the candidates that are running for president signed on to the Markey Bill in short no and you know Massachusetts were the most inundated state in the country that I mean as you pointed out almost every city and town is covered so anybody that represents Congressional or even in the state here knows the importance you yourself used it back in the day to be able to talk to the citizens of what's going on in Boston and keep in touch so we're following it closely on the national level we will ask people to get involved and sign the petitions and maybe some letters I think getting the town to constantly realize the citizens that we do not take out of the tax revenue it's always been one of those things where you get taxes why aren't you doing this that's not the case and I think the second thing we're about to talk about is the mass access bill which is up in front of the house so that is going to be dealing with another issue continuing the issue of streaming and loss of revenue as we pointed out that 9% we lost recently okay so we really the mass access bill if I can get into that right now is being championed by Paul McMurtry McMurtry McMurtry that second hour throws me out McMurtry he owns a movie theater oh nice up in is it land or somewhere like that I don't remember which town but it's in that region and he has an arts background and it's an art cinema type place like Amherst the equivalent of an Amherst cinema so mass access which is our statewide organization advocacy group that we belong to has worked on legislation that it's looking at basically looking at digital entertainment okay like and and seeing it as a something that really needs to be dealt with because that's the loss revenue that we just mentioned right that that digital entertainment's coming across the same poles that cable has to pay for to use in the localities but the other entertainment streaming coming in is not so it's not a level playing field by any means and you would think except for those that own both that they would be on our side of doing that like you know let's get some of that money so what came up was this idea of putting a fee on on that service that the state would implement and what what I really was amazed at how many representatives and senators signed on at this moment if there's like over 85 and that's a fact for a fast track this is started early fall and so you know because we're down there constantly talking about HD the need for high definition and cable and other things there's a relationship that we have with a lot of the representatives so this bill is really looking at charging a fee that the state can collect and and create a distribution network if you will that would look at the state getting 20% of revenues we returned on this twice a year billing and 40% to the municipalities and 40% to media access centers so it's a revenue generating for everybody it's not just a media access center way of trying to get money for ourselves it's also we know the towns and cities with prop two and a half and everything else that are under everyone's doing overrides and and and trying to figure out how to deal with these huge capital improvement that there's a need for new revenue and this is an opportunity to really look at this as a way for the town and cities across the state to receive quite a bit of revenue at the same time everyone I ask an Amherst media is so important you know it's too bad cables dying well what are you going to do to save it what are you going to do what kind of funding mechanism are we going to put in place that guarantees another 44 so is this a new idea or in place in other states it's in place and that's a good question I was surprised to hear how many states have already started programs like this that included diverse states and from Florida Minnesota Ohio Pennsylvania it's almost like 12 states either have something in place or have something in motion quite a few cities on their own have done so in Colorado and I believe in Illinois so the dozen states it's already law in those states or it's law in some of those states some and it's still a proposal and others yes and so help us with the the math here so I have a $20 subscription to a streaming service a month so I'm paying $240 a year on that did I do my math correctly yes so I've got a $240 subscription over the course of the year approximately how much if the proposal goes into a 5% would be 12 5% so we're going to pay $12 and of that 40 percent is going to come here so about eight eight dollars will be based on population so I mean they have a formula that they're going to create so it'll be it's not going to be a purse subscription headcount in my town it's formula across the state more like a cherry sheet approach okay and I think that makes it a little bit more equal you know because your cost you know what the in millions the total no I know the industry recently went to a hearing that was held down at the state house and their estimate oh they were saying hundreds and hundreds of millions and we don't think it's that high necessarily think it's tens of tens of millions yeah I really I haven't I don't have the numbers to crunch so you know but I would think with a number of colleges in Massachusetts alone if you're if you're looking at it that way then you're looking at a lot of people on those individual accounts so I mean I think it's a proactive way to deal with this other countries have done this South Korea has it as a statewide tax a country wide and Canada different provinces have implemented it and you know it's India even has done it which is a huge country for that kind of you know need but we're really saying like if you really expect the services you're getting no matter where you are but let's say in Amherst and you can if you're watching us lose 10 percent based on cable cutting and it continues to maybe go down to five per year or you're going to eventually see us not be able to present the way we present and cover what we cover and and I like to say we're a hybrid in a very small town and with the it's not just government it's the ability to bring in experts and people in issues that are not you know just Amherst based but the people that we bring in and connecting points and in other things like that that the community connections in children's programming we do a lot that just you won't be able to do mention connecting point that's WG no I mean yeah community connections community connect okay I just didn't know whether you were also rebroadcasting some shows from there very very hands-on to their own stuff I would like to see us go into a regional distribution of using each others and that's another thing to come but the other aspect is if we as I mentioned to you before we came on the air we're losing print media everywhere in the country everyone's bemoaning the fact you pick up the paper it's cost more and it's fewer pages we've lost hundreds you know thousands of people have lost jobs in the industry the affiliates as you and I grew up in this area that 2240 and three they actually used to come out and cover town and issues that were you know they're nowhere to be found covering any of the issues unless it it's a big party at UMass or something you know it's not they're not here so you're left with the access centers who are covering local government to give you gavel to gavel now that's not the perfect way of watching and getting your news but it is a way of knowing and keeping an eye on what government is doing and your judge your your show here is doing that and helping people understand the complexities that they're behind this right so we're part of that but more importantly is that loss of the education the access by people to equipment that wouldn't normally have the access to learn a lot of our interns are from the colleges have gone on this has been a great opportunity for them to to go out into their communities or to get jobs in the businesses so I mean there's multiple things that we do it's an economic development engine in many ways in the final couple of minutes might be helpful for people to understand generally your budget you mentioned 300,000 that comes from the cable system as a result of the negotiated agreement and we have a contract that going a few more years and eventually they'll sit down and renegotiate but right now it's about 300,000 a year and assuming that the federal government doesn't take away the next 10% with this new policy so what are the other sources of revenue by category and just rough figures so we can build it up in our minds and understand what it takes to run a quality local cable access station well we're allowed to as a nonprofit to do for production production for profit you know and so we we do a lot for the community the colleges will get asked will we cover a lecture well so we'll charge a small fee for that or of TEDx of Amherst College we've done for a number of years at a higher rate we need to do more production that what we're set up to do that can generate some income in here to help balance our sheets you know one of the things that comes up you know we're trying to get a new facility that's costing money and in those meetings at the local historic district people keep saying we love what you do but what if you go under and you don't you lose all your funding what's your building going to be well I would think that you turn on that if we're so wonderful how you all going to help what are you going to do to pitch in and hire us or to donate money or to help us move so we're a combination of for service paid for services donations and membership at the moment and does the town provide any direct funding so the services that involve putting the select board sorry the town council on on your site that is absorbed as part of your normal operating budget yeah that's under our contract very specifically what we have to do under that and that's understandable we're getting the money's getting given to us for a very specific but we're also in the source of that revenue though is the cable subscribers exactly that we don't get anything from the town there is no line item for us in that budget that's what I thought but I just wanted to make sure so you must you must be doing reasonably well on your production services that you that you sell you're not really in much competition with anybody around here there's independent people yeah they're in companies and we have to make sure we're not you know that really competing with that fine liner under undercutting too much but you're allowed more these days than in the past as a non-profit to create funds so we want people we like to have shows like yours underwritten we're starting to talk about that it's like many stations across the telecommuny access centers have underwriting but I mean as we move forward can we bring the journalists from UMass and can we start expanding and giving this community more coverage that it deserves there's so much going on up here in the area that really is worthy of that kind of coverage great well thanks for coming on and explaining a little bit more for the us of us who don't know a whole lot other than how to put it on and watch it how you actually put it together and pay for it so thank you for joining us and thank you for joining us and we'll see you again soon on another show