The Hudson Cable Utility Committee held its first meeting of 2025 with growing concern over declining revenue for local access television in the town.
“HCTV is funded exclusively through the franchise fees that the town collects from Comcast. Those fees are paid by cable subscribers from the town of Hudson, and it’s just on the cable portion of their bills,” explained Committee Chair Mike O’Keefe. “If you have internet or phone or whatever, it doesn’t come from that.”
With the growing popularity of streaming, that decline is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. HCTV received around $86,000 from the townwide franchise fee during the August 2024 quarterly report and around $84,000 during the February 2025 quarterly report.
“I am trying to budget around losing $2,000 per quarter from this franchise payment, that’s the only way we can go, unfortunately,” said Director of Community Media Mike Johnson. “We’re being very conservative with our purchases and only buying things we absolutely need.”
He called the revenue issue the “number one threat” to HCTV as an organization.
“It’s affecting every local access facility around the country,” said O’Keefe. “Those organizations are having to get a little creative in how they fund things.”
Johnson indicated that a more fundamental change to the funding structure of public access television would likely be needed to solve the problem in the long term. However, he had a few ideas to supplement some of the lost revenue, including a sports underwriting program. He indicated that such a program would be somewhat similar to sponsorships, where local organizations would provide financial support in exchange for visibility and branding opportunities.
“This is something we’ve been exploring. Some of our sister stations do this, and I’ve heard stories of stations raising approximately $25,000 doing this,” he said. “We would give supporters a thank you on HCTV, our social media, and right on the broadcast for the opening graphic during game breaks.”
The Director hoped to focus the underwriting program on at least 40 local sports broadcasts, including Alvirne games, yearly. He noted that the idea of underwriting was nothing new and that many other local access networks have been experimenting with similar underwriting programs to make ends meet.
“I know you’ve been focusing on sports. Is that what you’re going to limit it to? Sporting events?” asked O’Keefe. “Assuming you move forward with this proposal, I think it’d be important to get some statistics available for when you’re pitching this to businesses, so they know what they’re getting.”
Johnson stated that he could expand the program to other areas like closed captioning, but planned to start with high school sporting events, which have some of the highest viewership numbers on HCTV. While he did not foresee any legal difficulties, Johnson expressed his intention to discuss the issue with the Town Attorney and Town Administrator before moving forward, saying the program could start next September if everything goes well.
The Cable Utility Committee is scheduled to meet again on Monday, May 12, at 7 p.m. in the Hudson Cable Access Center.
