A memo sent by Buncombe County Attorney Michael Frue to the commissioners said the county owed no more money to URTV. Although I am not familiar with the entire body of pertinent law, the county’s interpretation, that it is to pay a portion of fees collected, and the portion is to be based on a formula spelled out, is consistent with my interpretation of the text provided by the county. Advocates for URTV are of the opinion they are entitled to more. After reviewing the claims from both sides, I wrote for the following for the Asheville Tribune April 5, and I’m standing by it until better information is forthcoming:
To set the record straight, the county invited John C. Howell, a telecommunications consultant from Waynesville, to explain URTV funding through the years. Howell explained how the county historically collected funds from the North Carolina Department of Revenue for public access television, otherwise known as PEG (Public, Education, and Government) channels. First, Buncombe County received NC DOR PEG supplemental funds for equal disbursement among its certified channels. The only two certified channels in the county are URTV and BCTV. Secondly, the DOR disbursed PEG subscriber fees. Buncombe County collected these fees, turned them in to the state, and then received a redistribution to be applied to “the operation and support of PEG channels.” Buncombe’s disbursement was established by the fees collected by Charter Communications during the first six months of FY 2006-07. Doubling the ratio of fees to franchise taxes collected, a rate of 5.79% was set as the amount of franchise revenues the county had to pay to its certified public access stations. No legislation specified how these funds were to be distributed amongst multiple stations in the same county.
The franchise agreement the county had with Charter Communications required the cable network to grant the county an amount upfront and in addition make monthly payments. Again, the county could choose how much it would give to which public access station. Since 2003, the agreement generated a total of $1,101,108 from Charter, $772,821 of which went to URTV. There is a discrepancy in the numbers in the report provided to the commissioners as to how the remainder was divided amongst BCTV and the educational channels of Buncombe County and Asheville City schools.
While the agreement with Charter was still in effect, Charter would have given URTV an additional $530,000 if they could have increased their programming above a certain threshold. Some say it was a 50% increase; others, 100%. URTV producer John Blackwell said he worked like crazy to produce an extra five hours of programming a week when he heard about the opportunity. Then, he was disappointed to find out that the programming was not airing and that board members were not interested in fixing the problem. Richard Bernier said when he served as a member of the board, he had not heard about the opportunity.
Responding to claims that the county has received as much as $30 million in franchise fees that should have gone to URTV, Howell said he could only account for $1.4 million. Furthermore, franchise fees are collected by cable companies for operational costs like protecting rights of way, addressing customer complaints, and handling legal matters. They have always gone straight to the county’s general fund.
In 2006, the state changed the way it collected franchise fees. It did away with the subscriber fees charged to commercial providers, and assessed a 7% video sales tax on subscribers to cable and satellite TV. Regardless of revenues, the state allocated $2 million to be split evenly amongst all certified PEG channels in the state. Currently, the per-channel disbursement is $4310 per quarter. Legislation that would take effect July 1, if not repealed in the interest of balancing the budget, would double the disbursements.
