The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus (Vt.), March 8:
Access to the functions of our democracy is at the heart of our local access cable channels. However, like many media institutions that we have long taken for granted, change is on the horizon for local access, as part of the fallout from disrupted television viewing habits.
This disruption is a refrain familiar to any member of the “traditional” media – newspapers, radio, broadcast TV, and cable TV. The world of web logs (blogs), social media, live streaming, YouTube, podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Twitter and Roku has swiftly and inexorably shifted and fractured the media consumption habits of Americans.
Cable TV, which not so long ago was the rising star of media, is showing signs of fraying around the edges.
One telling figure: In 2013, the number of pay-TV subscriptions (including cable, satellite or fiber services) nationwide fell compared to the year before. After years of growth or at least holding steady, the trend continued in 2014 and into last year. The so-called “cord-cutting apocalypse” appeared to have arrived.
“Cord-cutting” is a term that refers to the act of cutting ties with a cable or satellite TV company for the purpose of television viewing. Instead, a “cord-cutter” gets their TV shows, movies and other content through an independent, subscription-based streaming service like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, or Apple. Another telling figure: in the fourth quarter of 2014, Netflix viewers streamed more than 5.6 billion hours of content through the service. By the fourth quarter of 2015, that figure had more than doubled.
The practice has started to have far-reaching impacts. Major media companies like ESPN and Viacom rely on payments from cable companies to fund coverage, and in 2015 suffered staff cuts and reorganizations due to the shift in consumer habits.
While the disruption that the Internet caused in newspapers’ business model is well-documented, the effects of the rapidly changing technology on the relatively younger, but also well-established media like broadcast TV, radio and cable TV are still developing.
The impact may reach down to the local level, in the form of cuts to funding for local cable access channels. Every cable bill has a fee attached – typically a few dollars – that goes to support local access channels like Central Vermont Television, PEG-TV in Rutland, and 23 others around the state. With fewer cable subscribers, there will be less money to fund these stations. As reported in the Sunday Rutland Herald and Times Argus, local access cable channels are working to come up with a plan in case that funding dries up.
Local access was created 40 years ago to ensure public space to create, connect and collaborate on burgeoning cable networks – be it cooking shows, news coverage, or the staple of many local access channels, the broadcast and taping of public meetings. At the time, the barrier to creating that content was very high (very few people had or have the resources to build a cable network). Now anyone with a smartphone can create a YouTube channel with original content. That does not mean that local access is losing relevance – it just means that the delivery methods are changing rapidly.
Disruption can be relentless – vinyl records gave way to the cassette tape, which bowed out to the CD. The iPod delivered a death blow to the CD, and now streaming services like Pandora and Spotify (as well as other alternatives like YouTube) are dismantling iTunes’ near-monopoly.
The good news for local access networks is that none of the innovations on offer really replace the core of what they do. While one drama series on Netflix might serve people in Whitefish, Montana, just as well as in West Haven, Vermont, a recording of a select board meeting in Belen, New Mexico just won’t do for the locals of Calais, Vermont.
In other words, local is local, and can’t necessarily be exported. But local access still needs to adapt to the changing world. Cord-cutters are growing in number – and keeping them connected to local communities is vital to our democracy. While the variations on shows and news available online is virtually endless, there are few places left where the audience and the mission cut across and through the entirety of our communities. Local access is not tasked with pleasing one demographic, age group or political persuasion – it is tasked with serving us all.
That is something worth preserving.
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