It took more than a year of petitions, penny-pinching and community activism, but on March 14, a franchise renewal for cable company RCN was submitted to City Council.
The ordinance is big news for local access station CAN TV, which relies on money from RCN to run its programs, some of which cater to Chicago's LGBT and AIDS communities.
"The city has really stepped up on this, I'm happy to say," said CAN TV Executive Director Barbara Popovic.
Cable providers like RCN must include public access stations in their cable packages. But RCN's franchise has been expired for months, leaving CAN TV scraping by without funding from RCN.
Popovic estimates that CAN TV has been operating at a deficit of at least $200,000.
RCN's contract expired in June 2011 and was temporarily renewed through September, when it again expired. Since, CAN TV has suffered cutbacks and a lack of growth.
According to Popovic, CAN TV had set aside reserve funds for such circumstances. Those funds have kept programming going, but the station has been unable to grow, Popovic said, all while cable profits are on the rise. Popovic estimates that CAN TV's current financial situation could have sustained operations for just five years. After that, she said, CAN TV likely would have either been shuttered or downsized beyond recognition.
"We were beginning to pay down our reserves," said Popovic.
CAN TV supporters, LGBT groups among them, distributed online petitions late last year calling on City Council to swiftly renew RCN's franchise, and 46 aldermen submitted a letter to RCN urging the company to support a fair deal with the network.
CAN TV has hosted several LGBT programs over the years and regularly broadcasts LGBT talks and events. The Association of Latino Men for Action, Gay Liberation Network, Illinois Gender Advocates and several AIDS service organizations have hosted shows on CAN TV.
RCN's franchise renewal could be considered as soon as next month. The renewal is especially important for CAN TV as many believe it could set the standard for other cable company renewals like Comcast in the coming years.
Also, the renewal contains something else important for CAN TV supporters: the switching of funding models from a flat-fund to a percentage-based deal. For the last 15 years, CAN TV received a flat rate from RCN, regardless of how much money the cable provider took in annually. In this renewal, CAN TV is to receive 1 percent of RCN's profits. That means that funding streams for the network will keep pace with cable growth and inflation.
"We're satisfied that we're moving in the right direction now, and that's progress," said Popovic.
RCN also likes the deal, said Tom McKay, general manager at RCN Chicago. McKay said that the company stands behind CAN TV and supports the switch to percentage-based funding.
"We're happy with the terms," McKay said. "It's pretty fair."
