The Prospective MA Streaming Media Bills
by Pete Fasciano, Executive Director 02/23/2025
There is pending Massachusetts legislation to help alleviate the rising financial losses that we as PEG studios are experiencing from cable cord-cutting. It would assess streaming media revenues with an ‘access’ fee to at least cover any existing shortfall from our '3-year max' historic revenue. (Per lines 73 to 94 of HD326) Our 3yr max during 2016-18 was 25% higher than today, and yes, we're still dropping. The annual rate setting language is IMHO troubling to me. There is no perfect language to cover all the arguments to be made regarding fair fees.
However, setting the streamer rate to match the cable access rate seems a logical place to start.
Example:
In 2012 we took in $600K for OpEx. (Operating Expenses) In 2017 it was $750K for OpEx. A 25% increase.
Now we're back to 2012 revenues – less than $600K OpEx and dropping. If we work with historical inflation numbers from 2012 to today, our 40% inflation adjusted income from 2012 to todayshould be $840K plus.
Note that there is also no provision for CapEx (Capital Expense) contributions from streamers for equipment upkeep. Cable's combined CapEx&OpEx for many of us is actually somewhere between 5.5% to 6%, all in.
Running the Numbers: (Assumption, 5% Stream assessment)
There are about 7 million MA residents and there are 33K residents in Franklin. That sets Franklin’s population at about 0.0047 of the statewide population.
Persons per Household (HH) 2019-2023: 2.45
MA Households, 2019-2023: 2,800,000
HH with internet 2019-2023: 91.8%
MA HH adjusted for Internet: 2,576,000
What do streaming services cost?
Netflix 8 with ads, or 18 up to 25 for premium Hulu 10/ads to 19
Prime 9 (streaming only)
Apple+ 10
Max 10/ads 17 21 prem
Disney+ 10/ads 16
Paramount+ 8/ads 13
Peacock 8/ads 14
ESPN 12
Key Takeaways:
21% of households pay for 2 streaming services.
24% of households (HH) pay for at least 3 additional streaming services. 25% spend more than $75 per month on streaming subscriptions.
10% have "no idea" how much they spend.
41% of respondents admit to using a family member's or friend's login to avoid paying for a service.
With 3 to 4 services the average HH spend is $45 to $50/mo.
The Projection:
2,576,000 HH x $45/mo x 12mo = $1,381,020,000/Yr.
$1,381,020,000 x 5% = $69,552,000 to MA PEG studios.
$69,552,000 x 0.0047 = $326,894.40 to Franklin.TV
If we combine this with $575,000.00 (our current OpEx) Our cable/stream total: $901,894.40
This total would also provide some embedded CapEx contribution. (Note: There is no factoring here for Gamers, (Twitch, etc.) or for CapEx.)
This also yields a simple rule-of-thumb:
Cable revenues at 5% are about $19 dollars per citizen/year.
Streaming fees of 5% = $10 dollars per citizen/year in an average community.
A 5% access assessment on streaming services is both equitable and affordable. Note that more viewers are also turning to our own streaming service to watch our school sports, civic events and government meetings – for free – in HDTV, which the cable company standard TV channels do not offer.
Pete Fasciano, Franklin.TV
And – as always –
Thank you for watching.
Thank you for listening to wfpr●fm.
And staying informed at Franklin●news.
Get this week's program guide for Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) online http://franklin.tv/programguide.pdf
