With the increase in streaming and decline of cable comes a funding problem for local media centers, which are dependent on cable provider franchise fees to keep the lights on.
That’s why, over the past several years, legislators have sought a way to compensate for the shift away from cable toward streaming services. According to the Massachusetts League of Women Voters, the most recent bill before the Legislature would impose a 5% fee on digital streaming programming providers, which use public rights-of-way to sell their services in Massachusetts but don’t pay anything in support of the public infrastructure. Streaming services include providers such as Netflix, Disney+, or Amazon Prime.
Recently, Select Board member Elizabeth Dionne and Belmont Media Center Executive Director Jeffrey Hansell testified in support of the bill (S. 41 and H. 91) at a public hearing of the Joint Committee on Advanced Information Technology.
“Belmont’s 27,000 residents rely heavily on the Belmont Media Center, or BMC, to provide access to their local government,” Dionne told legislators. “BMC is scrappy. Despite the reduction in cable TV franchise fees, it has expanded services through innovation, fundraising, and community volunteers. … But we need this bill to ensure BMC’s long-term viability.”
According to Dionne, laws and regulations have not kept pace with the evolving market for content delivery.
“We hear of people ‘cutting the cord,’ but that’s not really what’s happening,” she said.
Hansell said that while many letters were sent on behalf of media centers statewide, Dionne was one of the few, if not the only, local officials who appeared in person to testify.
“Overall, [the bill] is going to make a big difference to all the media centers in Massachusetts in a significant way, and Belmont Media Center no less,” he said. “It has the potential to replace a lot of income we’ve lost.”
Even Belmont Media Center, which has lost a smaller percentage of revenue than outlets in other communities, is feeling the pressure from declining revenue. Hansell said the media center has always aimed to extend the life expectancy of equipment to avoid buying something new right away. Furthermore, the decline in revenue has hindered his ability to hire new staff in response to demand.
“We’re kind of doing without a training-education person right now,” he said. “We’re hoping to add that person back when we move in the library from the cost savings we’ll have.”
Recently, as part of another cost-saving measure, the media center signed a memorandum of understanding with the Belmont Public Library, where space has been designated for the Belmont Media Center once the library is open. Plans are also underway to create a studio at Belmont High School. These new spaces will eliminate the need to pay rent at its current location in Waverley Square.
According to Hansell, the media center operates with a budget of less than $500,000. Currently, it employs four full-time and two part-time staff members, as well as some interns and dozens of volunteers.
“For us, as with most media centers, we’re funded by franchise fees,” he said. “But we have increased our diversity of revenue from equipment rental to production services … We do provide some services to the town … at a lower rate [for a service] that the town would have to pay for anyway.”
Belmont Media Center records daily and nightly government meetings, sports and graduations, and all forms of Town Meeting.
“From what we were told by the Joint Committee, there’s been more overall support for this version than before,” Hansell said. “So there’s hope this might actually have a chance at getting it passed.”
