Thursday, July 9, 2015

Cable TV Advisory Board Report for FY14


Cable TV Advisory Board Report for FY14


The Templeton Cable TV Advisory Board operates and maintains the town’s cable access channel, known as Templeton Community Television (TCTV), appearing in Templeton on cable Channel 8. 

Channel 8 is broadcast from the town’s Baldwinville station, in addition to Narragansett Regional High School. The Baldwinville facility allows the airing of programs on weekends and weekday afternoons and evenings. The high school maintains use of the station during morning school hours except Wednesdays. 

Cablecasts of Select Board meetings, Narragansett Regional School Committee and other events have been regularly shown on the town’s Cable Channel 8. The Board also maintains public notices on a slide show that runs between programs. 

Funding for the cable access station comes from public access fees Comcast charges cable TV subscribers in Templeton, totaling 2 percent of all TV revenue the company earns in the town. In FY14, Comcast paid the Town $43,175.67 in cable access fees, to be used solely to operate and maintain the public access station.
The Cable TV Advisory Board expended $10,595.31 in FY14 on various equipment and operational needs, including phone and Internet fees, security system expenses, stipends for Board members and part-time video recording help. 

The Board maintains a healthy account balance for equipment needs, which in FY15 will include a sizable investment in new recording systems for the meeting room in the Town Hall in the former East Templeton school building. Other expected investments include existing equipment upgrades, and possibly installing broadcast recording equipment at the Narragansett Middle School Auditorium to record and broadcast town meetings and other appropriate events, while maintaining an emergency fund for unexpected needs. Creating a broadcast recording studio and donating equipment to the Senior Center is also under consideration. Pre- liminary plans for these capital investments are detailed the Cable TV Advisory Board’s Master Plan Draft, which has been recorded and presented to the Select Board. 

The Cable TV Advisory Board is currently ascertaining the town’s needs for a renewed cable TV license with Comcast. The existing license expires in December 2015 and the board is commencing renewal negotia- tions with Comcast. 



Respectfully submitted,
Steve Castle, Chairman
Robert Hackenfort, 

Vice Chairman Marcia Breen, Clerk

2 comments:

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  2. This report is in the Annual Town Report for 2014. You know the book you can pick up when you vote in the fall. The Cable Advisory Board is a group that does not ask for a lot, but does their job to bring you Selectman meetings and School Committee meetings on television. I know that cable television can be expensive, but people should know that there are other benefits that come from it's use. Steve Castle does a super job, along with the other people who work along side him. Julie was good enough to put this report on the blog so people can be aware of the benefits the Town's people receive, if they are not aware of them, and never got around to opening The Annual Town Report. Bev.

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