Study Category: The Impact of Existing Cable-related Public Benefits

Implementation of the benefits derived from the cable franchise agreements have enabled and supported digital inclusion for the past ten years. For example,  the community media centers have had the operations and capital support and distribution platforms   to provide digital literacy and multimedia literacy services; the MHCRC community grants have supported digital technology for schools and nonprofits to provide digital inclusion services to their underserved communities; and the I-Net has assisted public agencies to provide robust Internet service to students, library users, and members of the public; many who would not otherwise have access to the Internet. All in all, evidence suggests that the past ten years would have looked starkly different for many of the communities included in this Study without the public benefits provided through the cable franchises.

While cable subscribership overall has continued to decline, franchise fee revenues have not dropped as precipitously due to increased cable TV rates. Franchise fees for the MHCRC jurisdictions have totaled $83,279,421 over the last 10 years showing that it is a substantial revenue resource for MHCRC members. Franchise fees can be utilized for any purpose and provide the MHCRC member jurisdictions with general fund support (which is an important resource at this time because of the drop in tax and fee-based revenues due to the pandemic). Also, while both Open Signal and MetroEast have made strides in developing alternative revenue resources, the lions’ share of their operations is still funded, either directly or indirectly, through the cable franchise fees.

It is important to note that this franchise fee compensation is based on only a percentage of gross revenues for the video services portion of the services cable companies provide over their infrastructure. This infrastructure utilizes thousands of miles of public right-of-way throughout Multnomah County. Under Federal law, local governments do not receive any compensation for use of their public right of way by cable companies to deliver their profitable Internet service. Accordingly, franchise fees are a distinct benefit of local cable services franchises.

As the data in Finding 1.4 demonstrates, hyperlocal community media programming is seen by residents as important and is significantly viewed. Respondents to the Scientific Residential Survey indicated a 46% overall awareness of the local cable PEG access channels, with awareness at 57% among cable subscribers. For those that were aware, viewership was significant when compared against all the other viewership options available.  

Table 11: About how frequently, would you say your household views any local community access channel programming?

The majority of viewers utilized cable at 65%, 21% online, and 7% both via cable and online. The Scientific Residential Survey also tested the importance of hyperlocal community access channel programming. Regardless of how often someone may watch it themselves, nearly three quarters of all respondents to the Survey (cable subscribers and non-cable subscribers, cable viewers and online viewers, and non-viewers) indicated a level of importance.  This shows the significant impact of community media in Multnomah County.

Table 12: Regardless of how often you may watch, how important is it that local community access channel programming be available?   Would you say it’s… 

review of recent activity reports (pre-pandemic) shows that both Open Signal and MetroEast are very active in supporting multimedia and digital literacy. Specifically, Open Signal in a one-year period, provided a total of 96 classes and workshops focusing on everything from introduction to film and video production and post-production (editing), to training on motion graphics, stop motion animation, and sound-stage studio and screening. 601 community members were trained.

Open Signal’s media literacy programs also included those provided through partnerships and special workshops with the Oregon Center for Public Policy, the Alliance for Media, Arts and Culture, the MEChA Conference and Grant High School. Open Signal also continues to support its Black Filmmaker Fellowship program focused on support and development for people of color in professional filmmaking.

MetroEast over one year offered a total of 89 training classes and workshops attended by 522 community members. This included everything from basic video production classes (camera, studio, field production and editing) to use of DSLRs for both photography and videography, and iPads and Go Pros for point-and-shoot video production. They also partnered with groups such as Rockwood DIY, the City of Gresham’s Pathways to Employment Program, Free Geek, IRCO, Africa House, and Portland Youth Builders to expand digital literacy concerning use of computers and smartphones.

Both MetroEast and Open Signal work with local governments to produce public meetings and distribute other outreach and service-oriented programming. Together, the community media centers in 2019 covered 274 government meetings as part of 1,505 hours of government programming. All the local governments indicated that the assistance was beneficial and an important part of their provision of information to the community.

Portland Public Schools continues to provide local meeting coverage and other programming by and about the school district and its schools and sees its community access channel as a valuable part of its overall provision of communications and outreach services. Portland Community College continues to provide a substantial amount of evergreen programming to the community and its Media Services department is working on future strategies concerning its overall production and distribution of content, including for its community access channel.

The Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission launched The TechSmart Initiative for Student Success in 2014 as a way to strategically invest in local public K-12 schools to positively impact academic outcomes for all students in Multnomah County. The Initiative leverages the use of the I-Net (see Finding 5.4) by all schools throughout the County and the nearly $17 million for initiative funding was derived from the cable franchises’ PEG/I-Net Fee (see Finding 5.1). The Initiative supports teaching and learning technology in classrooms and assists school districts’ efforts to close the achievement gap. The Initiative funded projects in six public school districts and supported 268 classroom teachers through school year 2019-20 (Initiative funded projects end in school year 2021-22). 

During the workshop with Public School Districts, participants discussed the impact of the TechSmart Initiative grants on their ability to teach, train, and educate, and their students’ ability to learn and participate in a digital society. For example, they talked about how they communicate externally to engage parents and the community at large utilizing social media such as Facebook, Twitter, the districts’ websites, and culturally specific apps such as WeChat. Through applications such as Google Classroom, a variety of activities can occur such as getting real time feedback from students as well as being able to extend the learning day, and connect with students at home, as well as their parents.

In middle school, public school districts have been going for a 1:1 device to student ratio so that each student has a device, and then higher-grade level students are able to take them home. One district has also been looking within their community at partnering with other entities to develop community computer labs, which would be staffed by school district faculty and staff and the schools would become hubs, where these labs would open up for use well beyond the school day.

TechSmart Initiative grantees overwhelmingly indicated that communications technology and media technology literacy are very important to their students’ ability to have a successful career in the future. They indicated that “students need 21st century skills of problem solving, creativity and collaboration”. These are agnostic of tech, but they have to have tech in order to participate in digital society. They noted that “early access and exposure can help to reverse the traditionally underserved groups in tech careers”. Although the workshop was held before the stay-at-home orders caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s clear that the skills gained by the district staff, teachers, and students through TechSmart funded technology are extremely important to the abilities of teachers and students to participate in tele-learning from home.

In the last ten years, 90 Community Technology Grants totaling $ 9,325,474 have been awarded to a diversity of non-profits, local governments, and educational organizations. Some of these include Friends of the Children, The Boys and Girls Club of the Portland Metro Area, Wisdom of the Elders, the Northwest Film Center, public schools, Portland Community College, Mount Hood Community College, and the Multnomah County Library.

These grants have well supported multimedia and digital literacy and the development of programming for the community access channels, as well as expanded uses for the Institutional Network (I-Net).

The Community Technology Grants support projects in the four public benefit areas shown in the Chart below. The chart reflects the percentage of grant funds that have supported each of the public benefit areas over the last 10 years.

Chart 3: Community Technology Grant Public Benefit Type Breakdown

Each of the four public benefit areas is described in more detail below followed by examples of grants in each area:

• Reducing Disparities for Underserved Communities: Forty-seven grants in this area supported the development of equipment and related training and education for underserved communities, such that they can better participate in the digital society.  The Rockwood Innovation Station, funded in part by a grant with matching funds from Multnomah County Library, provided a “Makerspace”, located at the Rockwood library in a low-income area. It was developed as a collaborative learning environment for underserved youth in East Multnomah County to explore STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math), utilize technology and develop interactive data communications over the I-Net.
  
  Outside the Frame, supported youth transitioning out of homelessness and was designed to change how these youth see themselves and are seen by the public. As a result of this grant, more than 100 youth participated in workshops and became fully trained on how to use film and other video production equipment.

• Improving Service Delivery: Twenty-eight grants in this area helped improve the delivery or increased the effectiveness, of public or non-profit services. IFARA used a grant for digital video production equipment in order to expand their productions, distributed on the community access channels, related to health issues for individuals in all levels of education, gender/sexual orientation, ethnicity, and culture. They conducted trainings with multiple organizations to use the equipment and worked with their partners to not only be part of the content, but also part of the technical program production for training purposes.
  
  Film Action Oregon/Hollywood Theater created a media lab with its grant together with Portland Community Media (now Open Signal) at Open School North (OSN) where at-risk youth gain access to technology and media arts instruction. They produced 141 animated and live action media projects, including 31 programs submitted for community access channels.

• Improving Community Involvement: Twelve grants in this area were for projects that supported or encourage involvement in issues of importance to the community. The Slavic Communities Center of Northwest leveraged its grant with matching funds to create a video platform that gave local Slavic leaders the opportunity to express themselves, as well as help their community members to be more involved and engaged in the city. They developed 12 programs that were submitted to Open Signal as well as a number of videos utilized on social media and YouTube. All focused on the Russian and Ukrainian specific community.
  
  XRAY.FM gained their own production equipment, and collaborated with MetroEast, to record their radio programs on video to expand distribution on community access channels and other video platforms.  They developed over 160 programs and trained volunteers to operate the video equipment. They indicated having this type of video content also opens up new avenues of sponsorship for their station.

• Reducing the Cost of a Service or Function:  Three grants in this area supported the provision of non-profit or public services or functions less expensively. MetroEast Community Media used such a grant for development of their program scheduling, asset management and interactive video systems.

Many times, these initial grants lead to sustainability of the initiative so that the program can continue.

PEG/I-Net fees have been a substantial funding source for all of the public benefits further described below Community Technology Grants, TechSmart Initiative Grants, community media facilities and equipment, and I-Net facilities and bandwidth expansion and utilization. The funding totals $49,302,729 over the last 10 years and has been an important resource to many community-based nonprofits, hundreds of public agencies and schools, and the diverse constituencies they serve. A continuation of this type of funding source is critical for these public benefits to not only continue, but to evolve to meet the MHCRC jurisdictions’ and the community’s needs in the future.