City's cable company needs stable funding

Daily Southtown
Published September 1, 2004
Editorial

Thousands of Chicago nonprofit organizations have used the city's public access cable television provider to get the word out about the services and job opportunities they offer the public. Some produce local news, interview shows and even occasional entertainment programming.

For a nominal cost, organizations can get access to production facilities and equipment, air time and training to teach them how to use the gear. Chicago Access Network Television operates five noncommercial cable channels in the city. The channels offer a range of programming, from a basic text message service that runs announcements and want ads, to religious programming, to informational talk shows and even an occasional dance show for teens.

The CAN-TV organization has existed since the early 1980s, funded by contributions from the companies that hold the city's cable television franchises. In the 1990s, the city and its cable providers agreed on a funding system under which each competing cable company would pay a specific dollar amount in each of the city's five cable TV regions.

But that system, devised based on the theory that cable TV would become a competitive business, has turned out to be an unreliable source of revenue. Each competing company was to have paid a fixed amount for each region in which it operates to support CAN-TV. In practice, there is virtually no competition, with Comcast controlling nearly the entire market. One of Comcast's two competitiors has filed for bankruptcy and has stopped paying entirely, and CAN-TV's total revenues have declined radically.

CAN-TV's revenues last year fell $600,000 short of expectations, reducing the amount available for operations from $3 million to $240,000. This year, revenues could decline by another $350,000.

Ald. Bernard Stone of the north side 50th Ward wants to provide a stable, predictable revenue source for CAN-TV. He is proposing today that the city council should guarantee CAN-TV one-fifth of the amount the city collects from its cable franchise holders. At present, that would be about $2 million a year.

Under the existing system, the cable franchise money goes into the city's general fund. "We're talking about $2 million in a budget of $5 billion," Stone told the Daily Southtown this week.

CAN-TV provides a valuable public service for Chicago residents and the cable franchise fee is precisely the revenue source that should pay for public access television. At a time when the city's franchise fee is growing along with the cable company's profits, it would be a shame for CAN-TV to have to cut its services to the community or its programming. We urge city council members to support Stone's proposal.

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