Access Humboldt anxious as FCC prepares to reduce local public media funding

Community public television stations like Access Humboldt and other community services — including free internet at the library — could be throttled by a forthcoming Federal Communications Commission vote to hamper local regulation of cable companies.  Companies like Suddenlink Communications are required by local jurisdictions to pay “franchise fees” to support community access stations, but the FCC vote would allow Suddenlink to lump other contributions into its obligations, which are capped at 5% of the company’s local revenue.

Suddenlink, the leading cable and internet provider in Humboldt County (CA), helps fund Access Humboldt’s operations and contributes to public wireless network access. The new proposal, initiated by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, would assign a dollar amount to some of those contributions, which opponents say would strain the overall viability of public access. “We exist really out of that agreement, that social contract,” Sean McLaughlin of Access Humboldt said of Suddenlink’s required contributions to the station. “What the FCC is saying is, ‘We don’t trust local governments to represent their communities. We think they’re requiring too much of the corporations.'”