NASHUA, NH – Nashua’s Public, Educational, and Government (PEG) access channels provide a steady stream of information and programming via cable and online 24/7. Residents can watch high school sports and city hall meetings, get localized weather reports, and find notices of events around the city. This information and entertainment may be free to consume but requires money to produce.
The revenue stream that has supported the stations is shrinking and the financial viability of the stations is in jeopardy. Changing consumer behavior nationally is hitting local communities, including Nashua.
Funding for local government-operated television stations in New Hampshire comes from the Comcast Public Education and Government (PEG) Franchise Fee which originated in 1996. As more cable subscribers “pull the plug” and move on to streaming platforms the revenue produced shrinks.
The City of Nashua uses a fraction of the franchise fees to operate the Government channel (CH 16) to provide government meetings and other city-related events; and the Educational channel (CH 22) which provides coverage of Board of Education meetings and education-related events in the community and the new “Best Of ” channel ( CH 1073). The city public access channel, Access Nashua (CH 6), is contracted to the Community Media Services Group to produce its programs.
Comcast has not disclosed the number of cable subscribers it has lost in New Hampshire but nationally Comcast lost 487,000 cable TV subscribers in Q1 of 2024. It ended the quarter with 13,6000,000 subscribers compared to 14,106,000 at the end of 2023. At the end of 2022, they had 16,142,000. This precipitous drop is likely to continue – and as subscribers drop, so does the amount of franchise fees collected.
This fiscal year the city’s operation will run a $98,000 deficit. The operation will continue using reserves intended for capital improvements and eliminate about $40,000 in expenses. Next year those reserves will be gone, franchise fees will drop more, and then the shortfall will be crippling to operations.
These stations are a resource for important local information and are integral to municipal public communications. The city has legal requirements to broadcast public meetings and next year those broadcasts will be required to have accessibility features included upping the technical requirements and costs to produce.
Ironically the change to streaming that is jeopardizing revenue is also increasing the viewership of the PEG channels. They greatly expanded their online offerings to maximize distribution options. More people watch their programming in more ways.
One of the financial inequities in the franchise fee funding scheme is that only cable subscribers pay to support the stations. All of Nashua’s residents can consume the service but only a fraction fund it. Not all franchise fees collected go to the stations; most go into the general fund which is another case of the many benefiting from the few.
The Cable Television Advisory Board (CTAB) held a public meeting last week to discuss the shortfall and to plan for the future. Ideally, they can convince the city to fill the gap with a larger share of the franchise fee or direct support, like that for other city departments.
The new budget cycle is nearly upon us. If funding drops the possibility of dropping services and productions has to be considered. Many other municipal stations in the state are under the same pressure and a few may have to shut down entirely in smaller communities.