March 2, 2006

By CYDNEY GILLIS
Staff Reporter

Last summer, when Seattle was negotiating a new, 10-year franchise contract with Comcast Cable, city staff said it wasn’t a good idea to ask Comcast for too much because the company would pass on any costs to its subscribers.

But it’s o.k. if raising cable bills brings in money for the city.

In a first-of-its-kind side agreement that specifically states its purpose is to “induce” the city to renew its franchise, Comcast will pay the city an up-front sum of $4.1 million, which the city plans to use to produce arts programs on its own, government-run Seattle Channel.

That adds $500,000 a year to the Seattle Channel’s annual budget of $1.8 million. Meanwhile, in the main franchise agreement, which the public will have a chance to comment on March 8 and March 30, Seattle’s public-access station will also get $500,000 a year from cable franchise fees — a loss of $160,000 a year from what the station got under the old agreement.

Supporters of the nonprofit Seattle Community Access Network (SCAN), which runs the north Seattle station, question the legitimacy of the side agreement and ask why the city is producing arts programs on a government channel — something the city says Seattle Channel viewers asked for in a survey.

To deal with the cuts, SCAN’s board has already cut back on studio hours. It’s also looking at cutting one to two of the station’s 15 staff members and some of the public-affairs shows they produce for nonprofits such as the ACLU and NOW, charging the station’s volunteer producers a new fee of $45 a year, and raising fees on courses that producers must take to use the station’s cameras and studios.

Whatever the board decides later this month, SCAN directors and staff say the loss of $160,000 is causing a major rethinking of the station’s mission that could spell the end of public access as Seattle has known it — a venue of free speech that federal law once guaranteed, to offset a cable company monopolizing a public medium.

Some SCAN producers say last year’s stink over “Mike Hunt TV,” a late-night sex show that was deemed obscene and taken off the air, didn’t help the station’s cause with the city, which would like to see the station raise more of its own funds.

SCAN board member Stephanie Malone, KCTS outreach manager, Seattle’s public TV station, says board members are going to give it a try. But Ann Suter, SCAN’s executive director, isn’t optimistic. It takes a year of active development work, she says, to court donors, get grants, and start raising any money.

“ If the city wants us to raise money at the same time it’s cutting our budget, they just sliced off our legs,” says Suter. “You can say board members can take up the slack, but the reality is that’s not going to happen.”

Board president Daniel Hannah says a pot of $250,000 in public-access funding left over from the last franchise agreement could be used to ease the transition. But the city, which has been picking up SCAN’s tab since the last franchise agreement expired in January, has decided not to turn over the money until SCAN raises matching funds.

Jill Novik, a strategic advisor in the city’s Office of Cable Communications, which negotiated with Comcast, says the city has encouraged SCAN to increase its fundraising since the nonprofit took over the studio from Comcast in 2001.

“ That’s been very disappointing for all of us,” Novik says of SCAN’s fundraising efforts.

The city, she adds, did its part for SCAN, getting Comcast to give the station $500,000 for new equipment and ownership of its building, which is valued at $750,000.

Despite its current budget crisis, however, the city is demanding the station increase the production value of shows and add more programs geared to specific communities, such as current shows that cover news and events for Ethiopians, Filipinos, Hispanics and Somalis.

To accomplish that, volunteer producers will have to take more extensive training — something that SCAN’s Suter says is likely to weed out all but dedicated producers.

“ If you do what we’re talking about in terms of fees and charges and classes,” Suter says, “the suspicion is [producers] will fall off.”

Those who remain will get more staff help to produce better shows. But Suter notes it’s more than a physical change; it’s a step back from the philosophy of public access.

Joel Durias, who has spent 15 years producing a Filipino public affairs show called Mabuhay TV, says that could ultimately be a good thing for SCAN, which may need to move to a community TV model that favors groups with sponsors over lone voices and low production values.

“ The object of public access is anybody off the street can come up with a show,” Durias says, “but that doesn’t work because it doesn’t have any following — it’s self-gratification.

“ Between public access and community TV,” Durias says, “I think we are better off to have community TV.”

Bill Nahalea, producer of the six-year-old Hawaii Showcase Television Magazine, a show geared to Pacific Islanders, says he’s for public access — and doesn’t like the idea of the city producing arts shows. But he adds that a community TV model with underwriters may be the way to go.

“ That way you can make money and the channel’s still on the air,” Nahalea says. “It may not be the SCAN format, [but] it might be a thing of the past.” n

[Public hearings]

The Seattle City Council’s Energy and Technology Committee (ETC) will take public comment on the proposed 10-year franchise deal with Comcast Cable on Wed., March 8, 2 p.m., at City Hall, 600 Fourth Ave., and in a special public hearing on Thur., March 30, 5:30 p.m. (speakers sign up at 5 p.m.), at the Shaw Room of Seattle Center, 305 Harrison St.