Politics & Government

Citizens Speak on Behalf of Public Access Studio

If the cities involved sign a new agreement with Comcast, the public access TV studio in Eden Prairie will close.

A handful of citizens showed up at Monday's City Council meeting in Minnetonka to try to persuade the council to stop the closing of the public access studio in Eden Prairie.

Likewise, the reason for the studio's closure would be that only a handful of residents use it.

In the past, the Southwest Suburban Cable Commission has discussed closing the Eden Prairie public access studio that serves five southwestern communities, including Minnetonka, Hopkins, Edina, Richfield and Eden Prairie.

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A new agreement with Comcast was introduced last night in Minnetonka and will return Aug. 6 for the council's final consideration. The agreement was heard by the Hopkins City Council last week and is on the agenda for the rest of the cities this week.

Brian Grogan, an attorney from Moss & Burnett who represents the cities in the Cable Commission, addressed the council with a new 10-year franchise agreement.

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The current franchise agreement was put in place 15 years ago and expires at the end of the month. The deal will be completed in August if all member cities agree.

One of the key provisions of the new franchise with Comcast relates to public, educational and governmental (PEG) programming. Under the existing franchise, four channels are dedicated for local PEG programming.

Channel 16 is dedicated for governmental programming by the city, channels 14 and 17 are dedicated for programming by the Minnetonka School District (and neighboring school districts) and Channel 15 is operated by Comcast and provides local programming created by the public out of a Comcast-owned studio located in Eden Prairie.

The commission’s needs assessment demonstrated that the studio was significantly underutilized, and the commission decided the studio should close.

"Why would we agree to close that studio?" asked Grogan. "The usage statistics between 1997 and 2009 showed a significant decrease."

In 2009, the studio was used for just 13 productions with a total of 164 episodes, according to a needs assessment report done for the commission.

Only two of the users were identified as Minnetonka residents, Grogan said.

There are no plans to maintain a public access studio if the one in Eden Prairie closes.

During this transition period, Comcast will provide the commission with a one-time grant of $200,000 to fund new equipment and fiber to allow the cities to take over the playback operations for educational and public access programming.

Additional per subscriber funding will also be paid to each city to help finance the transition. Under the old agreement, cities received a 5 percent franchise fee from Comcast. At the same time, the company kept 25 cents per subscriber per month to run the Eden Prairie studio—a charge called a PEG fee.

Under the new, 10-year agreement, cities would still receive the 5 percent franchise fee. But now a 60-cent PEG fee will go directly to the cities instead of 25 cents going to Comcast.

"I'm still trying to figure out, why 60 cents?" asked council member James Hiller. "We are losing some things. Does this come close to the same cost as what we're losing?"

"It's probably not quite enough," Grogan answered. "We started at a higher number. Without revealing all the give and take, and some of it we agreed would be confidential between the parties, it was not at the high-water mark that we had hoped to achieve all the needs."

It was a compromise within 20 percent of what they wanted, according to Grogan. 

The commission, which consists of a council member from each city and a city staff member, recommends that each city councils approves the franchise agreement and repeal the existing regulating ordinance, which will be considered moot.

Peggy Kvam, of Minnetonka, spoke in favor of the studio. She said the League of Women Voters', of which she's a member, often puts programming on Channel 15. Currently, they are running a program on one of the ballot amendments.

"This will completely eliminate the public's ability to put programming on there when there is no studio," Kvam said.

Another attendee of the meeting was " at the Eden Prairie studio. Kvam also helps out with the show.

Strate said the studio is cramped and difficult to use but that great things come from it.

"I am very, very concerned about the removal of an access station here without having in place a provision for creating a new one," he said.

Strate added that the reason the studio is underutilized is because nobody knows about it. If it was better promoted, he said it could be educational and give a voice to many community groups.

"The reality is the world has changed since 1997 with You Tube and Facebook where people have more access to getting heard back in the days when this first started," said Mayor Terry Schneider.

Schneider added that if the councils agree to this, it will be up to the city of Minnetonka to talk about what to do with their own fees collected instead of deciding as a collective group of the five cities.

 

Do you care if the access station studio is shut down? Why or why not? Tell us in comments!


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