Declining cable subscriptions are changing public access TV model

LACONIA — The future of Lakes Region Public Access Television became a topic of discussion at Monday’s Laconia City Council meeting, including how the impact of declining cable use drove a change in funding, and the need for public television accessibility on cable providers new to the area.  

Last year, declining cable subscriptions numbers prompted a change in how LRPA gets its funding. LRPA is supported by its member municipalities, where LRPA is broadcast, in the form of dues. These dues used to be calculated based on the number of cable subscribers, as reported by the local cable company Breezeline to municipal governments, in each town or city. With the number of cable subscribers declining as people opt out of cable in favor of streaming services, the board of directors at LRPA decided to change that structure in the spring of 2021.

“We had to make a change to a system that would be sustainable long term,” said City Councilor Robert Hamel, who is the mayor’s appointed liaison to LRPA and serves on its board of directors. As cable subscription numbers declined in recent years, using that figure to measure how many LRPA consumers were in each municipal area — and therefore how much dues funding LRPA received — was no longer sufficiently supporting LRPA financially nor accurately portraying its consumer base. LRPA can be live streamed by anyone online at lrpa.org, and so not all of those who watch and value LRPA’s programming have cable.

The LRPA dues structure is now based on two systems that each contribute about half of LRPA’s dues funding. The first calculates dues proportionally based on the population of each member municipality, and the other collects a valuation of LRPA apportioned equally to the five member municipalities. Belknap County also contributes a small amount so that some county meetings can be broadcast on LRPA’s platform. 

LRPA currently has five member municipalities: Belmont, Gilford, Laconia, Meredith and Northwood — though it has had as many as 13 at one time since its founding in 1999, said LRPA Executive Director Grace McNamara. 

This fiscal year LRPA’s total funding from dues totals about $78,560, with about $26,683 coming from the city of Laconia, according to McNamara.

Breezeline is currently the only cable provider in the area that broadcasts LRPA, while Comcast, which recently arrived in the Lakes Region, does not yet broadcast public television stations. The Federal Communications Commission requires all cable providers to broadcast public television. According to Hamel, the city of Laconia intends to negotiate with Comcast and get it contracted into the dues and broadcasting system for public access television once Comcast’s cable infrastructure is complete in the area. “We’re waiting for them to get their build out,” Hamel said.

McNamara and Hamel both said that LRPA has been agile in adapting to technological changes in an increasingly streaming-dominated market. Hamel emphasized that, at the same time, ensuring reliable and widespread access to those who prefer to or must use cable is key.