| Big Radio News Staff |
The city of Janesville plans to begin charging nonprofits and other agencies who seek to produce programs on JATV.
City staff are still building a new rate package, but one official says the city will begin for the first time charging for use of JATV staff to produce “one-off” programs that promote or broadcast events.
City spokesman Nick Faust says the city would charge the fee for private nonprofit agencies and other large private groups that annually use JATV to produce or broadcast agency fundraisers and other gala events.
“This is specifically looking at those special events to further your United Way, or any nonprofit, where we’re going to go to Glen Erin Golf Club or something, and JATV is dedicating staff to set up two or three cameras and have multiple staff members there,” Faust said.
Faust says the fees are meant to recoup JATV staff costs, which now are paid out of cable TV royalties the city collects. Faust says the new fees would be based on how much JATV staff time a group would require to film and produce a TV program.
The change comes to JATV after Janesville City Manager Kevin Lahner took charge of the public cable access TV station’s operations via the city’s own communications office.
The Hedberg Public Library Board relinquished control of JATV’s operations earlier this year as Lahner told the board he sought tighter control to produce more city-related content.
JATV has a staff of just a few full-time employees. The city aims to turn over some in-house production duties on city-generated content to its own communications staff.
The city historically has collected cable royalties from JATV’s programming — but in the past, and currently, the city socks away about 80 percent of those royalties in its general fund. It uses about 20 percent of the royalties to offset JATV’s operating costs.
During budget planning last year, a few city council members asked the city to start dishing out a bigger share of royalties to JATV. Lahner gave the request a cold reception, and the bulk of the council rebuffed the idea.
Faust says the city does not intend to charge the new special fees to individual community members who want to use JATV’s production room and equipment at Hedberg Library to produce less labor-intensive community programming.
“There’s not a charge for those folks who are saying, I want to produce this, I am interested in this, and I want to get it on the JATV airwaves,” Faust said. “There is not a fee for them to work out a time to come to the studio, record in studio, or edit on JATV’s machines.”
Faust says there is a difference between the cost and staff time it takes to film an hours-long, local trade association’s annual luncheon and awards ceremony, and other, self-produced programs.
He says the city’s JATV cost recovery plan is not intended to stifle community-submitted programming.
“(The fees) are not for the person who says they want do a little home-brew show, and they want to come in the (JATV) studio and learn how to do that,” Faust says. “The fee is examining those special events that require a lot of station staff time, and a lot of effort.
“This isn’t at all targeting community access for people to produce programs they’re interested in the studio.”
Faust says as discussions roll out between the city and JATV, they’re hatching new approaches and ideas.
JATV typically has a few volunteer producers who can show private groups how to handle their own productions.
Faust says having volunteers help or show private groups how to do TV production on their own could be one way to mitigate fees the city tries to recover on bigger-ticket productions.
It’s not clear when the change goes in place. Faust says city staff is working on it “internally” to “really put something together that makes sense.”
Faust says often, such changes get phased in when the city sets new rates on city services.
Typically, city fees and rates are set and approved by the city council.
