As talk of the 2017-18 budget has started among Addison Township officials, Oxford Community Television (OCTV) Production Manager Teri Stiles came forward with a special request at the Dec. 19 meeting.

“I’m asking, while you’re considering your budget in the next month or so, if you would consider fully funding (OCTV with 100 percent of Addison’s franchise fees),” Stiles said.

Stiles’ request comes on the heels of a recent move by AT&T to move away from cable services, which help fund OCTV.

OCTV is not supported by local tax dollars. The station is primarily funded via the franchise fees paid by people who subscribe to cable TV services provided by Charter Communications and AT&T U-verse.

Oxford Township and Village, Addison and Leonard all receive these fees, then contribute a portion or all of them to OCTV.

AT&T’s DirecTV removes the need for cable services from its subscribers, which will in turn mean a decrease in funding for OCTV, though Stiles said they don’t yet know how large of an impact this will have.

In Addison, 50 percent of the franchise fees go directly into the township’s general fund, while the other half helps support OCTV, according to Treasurer Lori Fisher. This means that OCTV gets approximately $21,500 of the $43,000 brought in annually through franchise fees.

Cable franchise agreements vary widely from state to state or even from city to city.

What nearly all of them have in common is that the entity granted the franchise (in this case, AT&T) must pay the entity granting the franchise (the state government, local government or utility board) a fee— typically around 5 percent of revenues gained from each customer.

“In order for us to continue to operate at the level we are, full-funding would be beneficial to us,” Stiles told this reporter.

According to Stiles, OCTV’s viewership numbers have increased by 301 percent since 2013 based on YouTube numbers.

“(Although) not everyone in the community gets cable TV… the people that (do) are the ones paying the franchise fees,” Stiles continued, adding that OCTV staff would like to continue fully serving those who choose to subscribe to cable.

Stiles said she hopes Addison officials will decide to contribute more, if not all, of the franchise fees collected to OCTV to help offset the decrease in funding caused by residents switching to AT&T’s DirecTV.

Since the cable commission’s fiscal year ends Jan. 1, Fisher told this reporter its 2017-18 budget has already been finalized.

Despite this, she added the board may be discussing the request for the 2018-19 budget.

“We added a lot of money (to the 2017-18 cable commission budget) for personnel this year. We’re buying a drone. We approved that at the November meeting, so they’ve got money. They’re operating on close to a $400,000 budget,” Fisher said. “(OCTV) would probably need to bring to the board exactly what they’d be doing with the money.”