hink of cable-access television and you might envision
two long-haired dudes chilling in their parent's basement, making jokes and
howling: "Party Time! Excellent!"
But in 2004, Saturday Night Live's Wayne and Garth would more likely publish
a blog than broadcast a homegrown TV show over the local airwaves.
As a result, groups like Palo Alto's Media Center are struggling to reinvent
themselves. But it's not just technology that is forcing the local nonprofit
to fundamentally alter its mission -- its finances are also unstable, forcing
the organization to become more aggressive in fundraising.
It's a familiar tale for cable-access groups nationwide, which are facing
increasing pressure to look for new sources of revenue.
"They're trying, but it's hard out there," said Randy VanDalsen, vice president
of The Buske Group, a telecommunications consultant. "It's real hard out there."
In response to the challenges, the Media Center's leaders are expanding its
mission. They're exploring streaming video over the Internet, competing with "mom
and pop" private production companies and seeking underwriters for their "electronic
town square."
"We're planning to stay on the leading edge," said Executive Director Annie
Niehaus, who was one of the leaders who originally brought cable access to
Palo Alto in 1990.
However, the changes haven't been easy. Employee morale sunk last year when
staff-produced programs were cut, and there is the possibility that sports
and election coverage could be next.
There is also one board member arguing that the group's leaders aren't doing
enough.
"Our local media center needs to have a new vision and a new direction in
order to be financially viable," board member P. A. Moore said. "I don't see
any long-range plan for that. ... There needs to be an infusion of new blood."
Traditionally, cable-access organizations have had three main functions: teach
neighbors to use video equipment and produce their own programs, broadcast
educational programming and televise local government meetings.
The philosophy behind cable access was that in exchange for purchasing the
rights to broadcast over the local airwaves, cable companies needed to return
something to the community. The Cable Communications Act of 1984 laid out how
local governments could form such groups.
"They're really a continuation of some founding principles of our country" such
as free speech, VanDalsen noted.
When the Media Center began life 15 years ago, it didn't have to worry about
shrinking budgets. The cooperative running cable television for the local community
provided it with a steady flow of annual revenue. (Back then the Media Center
was called the Mid-Peninsula Access Corp.)
However, everything changed following AT&T's purchase of Cable Co-op's cable
franchise in 1999. The only dedicated funding the Media Center now gets is
88 cents a month from all of the 25,000-plus cable subscribers in its distribution
area: Palo Alto, Atherton, Menlo Park, East Palo Alto and Stanford University.
With that money, it runs cable channels 26 through 30, which are available
to subscribers of Comcast, the telecommunications giant that purchased the
local cable franchise from AT&T in 2002. It also operates a video production
facility, purchased using $17 million that AT&T gave to continue local productions
(see sidebar).
But the combined fee totals less than $300,000 annually, well short of half
the money needed to operate the channels and the center, which has seven full-time
and many other part-time employees. Plus, such funds are likely to diminish
as satellite television increasingly take customers away from Comcast.
Last month, the Media Center's board of directors approved an $880,000 budget
for 2005.
As in 2004, $200,000 in grants from the sale of Cable Co-op are being used
to fill projected deficits. But when those funds run dry at the end of the
year, the center will need to raise $88,000 in new revenue or stop broadcasting
youth sports and covering local elections, arguably some of its most popular
programming.
Such cuts would be required sooner if revenue projections fall short. Moore
voted against the budget last month, warning of "soft assumptions." For instance,
she noted that the single-page budget presumed local cities would not cut their
spending on cable broadcasts of governments meetings. Palo Alto is facing a
$5.2 million deficit for 2005-2006. Such broadcasts, which make up one-quarter
of the Media Center's revenue, are likely to be on the chopping block.
The budget also didn't appear to show an increase in spending on employees'
health care, Moore noted.
"I was surprised at the assumptions that things would not change," said Moore,
who works in the city manager's office in Palo Alto and produces the television
show "CityBeat."
The board president, Seth Fearey, agreed there might be lower revenues in
2005.
"The board felt there are enough uncertainties in the budget that it's not
worth micromanaging" individual issues, he said. "It's a plan for the year.
We expect to see a number of things change."
Technological advances are also affecting the Media Center, threatening to
make it obsolete for the average high-tech Palo Altan.
"Before the Internet came along, this was the way to get your message recorded
and broadcast and out to the community," Fearey said. "But now we have something
called the blog. There are now many, many ways of getting your message out
there."
Cheap video and editing equipment on home computers make it easier to create
and televise messages and creations worldwide.
The center is attempting to meet that new reality, Fearey said. New, more
advanced digital editing classes are being considered, for instance.
The Media Center is also hooking up with the school districts, hoping to take
advantage of local schools' new video equipment. Recently, teachers completed
a video training class at the facility.
The center is also contemplating running a film festival at local schools
or broadcasting "battle of the bands" or other events. Of course, neither of
those would help with the nonprofit's deficits.
The most successful revenue-generating venture the Media Center has attempted
thus far has been offering its services as a production company for nonprofits
and other groups.
From such work, the Media Center earned $60,000 in 2004 -- up from $23,000
in 2003. Many of those new programs were never shown on any of the local five
Comcast channels the Media Center now controls.
"We used to be about cable television channels," Fearey explained. "Now we're
more about video in many, many manifestations. ... The channels are great and
we're going to take advantage of them, but that's too limited now."
In 2005, the board hopes to make $75,000 from such outside production work.
That's still only a small portion of the overall $880,000 budget.
By working as a de facto production company, the Media Center has entered
an arena that other similar nonprofits, such as the Community Media Center
in Monterey, find controversial.
Monterey's Executive Director Paul Congo said his board doesn't want to compete
with private production companies.
Palo Alto's Media Center, Fearey argued, is trying not to actively compete
with commercial enterprises. "We want to focus on nonprofits and community
organizations that probably can't afford commercial productions," he said.
"If the board were to get a request from HP, we would flat out turn them down."
Last year, Palo Alto's Media Center also began exploring broadcasting video
over the Internet. Debates of local elections were placed on its Web site,
allowing visitors to search the various forums by topic.
"The Internet has taken some people away from us, but it's also given us
a new channel," Fearey said. "In many ways, this is very revolutionary because
we have been constrained to whoever subscribes to the cable company, in terms
of our audience. Now literally the entire world can view our material thanks
to the Internet."
Sometime this year, the Media Center will begin streaming Palo Alto City Council
meetings online. Eventually, its leaders would like to charge for access to
such content.
"There might be people willing to pay five bucks a month or 10 bucks a year
-- we don't know -- to access this material," Fearey said.
It's not a venture Monterey's Community Media Center has considered, although
it streams some of its government channels online, under an agreement with
the City of Monterey. "I don't know how many people will pay to watch a City
Council meeting," Congo said. "It's not the sexiest thing in the world."
Immediately after the board approved the 2005 budget last month, Fearey asked
his fellow board members to approve $10,000 to pay for a consultant to create
a business plan to sell streaming video of City Council meetings on the Internet.
But Moore warned the budget would immediately go into a deficit if board members
approved that spending. She also asked if there had been a background check
on the consultant that Fearey recommended, or if there were any other companies
contacted to see if they would offer the service at a better price.
There hadn't been, so the board's consideration of the plan was pushed back
to January's board meeting.
"PA's a good board member," Fearey said. "She challenges us to make sure
we think things through."
While exploring such new businesses, Palo Alto's Media Center also tried asking
viewers to become paid members.
To do so, the board hired a marketing and fund-raising director, who was
charged with finding underwriting and raising the organization's profile locally.
She was only employed for a few months before leaving.
"I'm afraid she didn't get a lot of support," Moore said. Mountain View's
cable access network subsequently hired Phelan. There are no plans to replace
her.
"We brought in this person with the notion of doing something pretty dramatic
to the organization ... I think we made a start at it -- but we didn't finish," Fearey
said.
"Often when you're trying to change an organization," he continued, "you
fail the first time. We're not giving up."
Niehaus also attributed the failure to raise significant funds to the community's
unwillingness to support the center financially.
Such support is understandably "grass roots," she said. "We're not curing
cancer here; we're helping people's free speech."
It's a struggle many media access groups are facing, according to one expert. "The
problem is public television has auctioned and 'begga-thoned' us to death," said
VanDalsen, the media consultant.
The budget shortfalls and changes have already come at a cost: a few staff-produced
shows were cut last summer.
One of those cut was NEWSwatch, a local call-in television talk show with
topics including AIDS, the latest City Council flap and abortion.
"I'm very sorry we're not still doing it," said Mike Cobb, a former Palo Alto
mayor who hosted the program since the mid-1990s.
The center's employees, who spent numerous hours producing those other programs,
are now spending their time working to raise revenue, Niehaus said.
Other eliminated programs included Community Journal, where nonprofits created
their own mini-documentaries, and The Reel Review, which previewed new movies.
The programs cost around approximately $40,000 a year, although that sum includes
other programs that were cut previously.
Employee morale declined as a result, Niehaus admitted. "It was not an easy
task, because everyone loves production around here and they were all really
involved in the shows they were doing."
If the center's finances turn around, the cut programs could return. "It's
important to know that doing the staff shows is great but it's not primarily
why we're here," Niehuas said.
Other than Niehaus, employees contacted at the Media Center declined to be
interviewed for this story. "Annie and I are both more comfortable if she acts
as staff spokesperson for the Media Center's challenges and new directions," Executive
Producer Elliot Margolies wrote in an e-mail, echoing other comments.
Original local programming now seen on the channels -- including Talking with
Henrietta, a yoga class and a technology call-in show -- are produced by volunteers.
They're continuing the mission of free speech, bringing the community's faces
and voices onto the local airwaves.
In an age of mass consolidation of media outlets, Niehaus argued, local origination
of content is increasingly important. "The Media Center is a place where money
and ethnic background are not barriers to tell your story."
Staff Writer
Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com
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