Cable Fantasies

This opinion piece appeared in the Townsman, January 8 edition.

My reporting in the December 24 edition on the cable tv franchise renewal with Time-Warner apparently struck a nerve in Woodstock resident Dee Dee Halleck, who has graced the area's editors with her riposte to "several confused and incorrect statements" and a recommendation that "instead of accomodating to [sic] Time Warner's shoddy deal, Woodstock should sue the company for attempting to hold our citizens hostage by denying the long required educational channel until the proposed franchise is signed."

That's enough to fill the rest of the decade, but Ms Halleck is not easily surfeited:

"In terms of finding a town to make a comparable assessment, I suggest you visit the facility in Falmouth, Massachusetts (http://www.fctv.org) either in person or via their web site. Falmouth Community TV has a slightly larger subscriber base, but they also have an expanded summer population that is quite similar to Woodstock."

I visited the town of Falmouth and the Falmouth public access web sites, and even spoke with a Victoria (508 457 0800) at the studio.

This is a portrait of Falmouth:

Total area 54.4 sq mi (141.0 km2)
Population (2000) 32,660
Assessed value $11,400,000,000 (Eleven billion plus)
Estimated median household income in 2007: $44,797
Estimated median house or condo value in 2007: $492,649

This is a portrait of Woodstock:

Total area 67.9 sq mi (141.0 km2)
Population (2000) 6,241
Assessed value $1,280,000,000 (One billion plus)
Estimated median household income in 2007: $49,217
Estimated median house or condo value in 2007: $369,000

So Ms Halleck is slightly close; Falmouth is only five times more populated and only ten times wealthier. At least we beat them area-wise and with the median household income.

But what I learned at the Falmouth public access tv web site and in speaking with Victoria is more illuminating.

According to Ms Halleck, "They [Falmouth] negotiated with their cable corporation for funds to build an entire building specifically designed for their needs. Their comfortable studios and meeting rooms also provide a gallery space for local artists. They have seven paid staff and a crew of volunteers. Falmouth Community TV Director Debbie Rogers 508-457-0800 could answer any questions you might have about their procedures and discuss their own quite successful 'tough' negotiations."

According to the website and Victoria, users ("members") of the station pay $30.00 annually for the privilege (family rate available), sponsors (area businesses) kick in a tidy sum, and the rest, according to Victoria, comes from a 3% franchise fee. Using rough calculation, if Falmouth has five times the number of subscribers than Woodstock and grossed $10,000,000, the 3% franchise fee amounts to $300,000.

Not to bore you, but this is what I reported December 24 regarding franchise fees:

"Municipalities may impose a franchise fee of up to 5% of the company's gross revenue, which Woodstock has since at least 1986. The cable subscriber pays the fee in his or her monthly payment to the company, which then remits the sum to the Town on a quarterly basis. Last year Woodstock's general fund received $110,000 from the cable subscribers."

I'll repeat it for the hard of hearing: The cable subscriber pays the fee in his or her monthly payment to the company…

To put it another way, the check may come from the cable company office, but the money comes from the subscriber's pocket.

One does not have to enter into a "tough" negotiation to obtain the blessing of 3% of your cable bill going to support public access ($64,000). Time-Warner would happily agree to a provision that does not affect their bottom line one iota. Woodstock can require that 3% of your cable bill go to public access, just as Falmouth has, and budget the remaining 2% to the Town to sweep streets, plow roads and empty the trash. The Town would merely have to raise $64,000 in taxes to maintain its level of services.

Ms Halleck suggests "instead of incriminating the efforts of citizens to uphold those regulations" the newspaper (me) should talk to the folks that operate our public access channel. I have. It was my initiative that ended the stupidity of town board appointed committees to oversee the studio, which then permitted those who care the most to run the station. They have done an outstanding job, and among the letters of gratitude I wrote before leaving office December 31 2007 were one to each of them. How lamentable that Ms. Halleck should not have received one for all she has said, if for the little she has done for the station's day-to-day operations.

"There has been no official audit of the Time Warner revenue reports, something suggested as a regular procedure by the cable consultants," says Ms Halleck. She is either comical or sly, for if you carefully parse her sentence it's meaning is contrary to what I believe she means, which is, Time-Warner's revenue reports should be audited. Well, audits cost at least a few thousand dollars, and according to councilwoman Liz Simonson, the last time (1999) the Town paid for one it turned out that Time-Warner's accounting was practically to the dime.

But Time-Warner, you see, is very, very evil. It is apparently a company that wants to make money. To my December 24 report, "Time-Warner installed a complete fiber-optic system replacing the old co-axial cable, making Woodstock in 2001 one of the first communities in Ulster County to have access to high speed internet by cable, Ms Halleck shoots right back, "Time Warner installed this to reap the lucrative fees that have made Woodstock one of the most profitable areas with a similar population." This is another odd sentence, which I will leave for you to parse, but I think I get it; we were duped.

A consultant that Ms Halleck highly touts apparently recently negotiated a franchise renewal for a Healdsburg CA that "requires their cable provider to rebuild their fiber/coax to 750+ Mhz at the time of renewal." Woodstock's upgraded 750+ Mhz fiber optic system was completed by 2001. It cost the Town a letter of thanks from their supervisor.

Ms Halleck's dissertation on the evolvement of the educational channel spawned by the Onteora school district is so hot and gristly I'm afraid to stick my fork in it. Let her show us the letters and documents substantiating her meaty contentions.

In fact, if Ms Halleck would show the Town ONE, JUST ONE of these legendary, signed franchise agreements that gifts public access stations in municipalities our size (and wealth) with hundreds of thousands of dollars of free money from the greedy cable companies (and not the subscribers), JUST ONE, I would insist in this space that Woodstock accept no less.

Ms Halleck is apparently a reader, and I will keep you updated.