Oxford Community Television (OCTV) didn’t gain any funding from Oxford Village, but the public access station didn’t lose any, either.

At its May 22 meeting, the village council voted 4-1 to “keep” the portion of the cable franchise fees it contributes to OCTV at “current levels” and have the remainder “earmarked for roads, sidewalks, bike path maintenance and any other applicable projects.”

The village receives franchise fees from AT&T and Charter Communications, which collect them from their subscribers via their monthly bills.

Franchise fees are paid to municipalities (i.e. local franchising authorities) as compensation for a cable company’s use of a community’s rights-of-way or easements, the places where utility poles are typically located.

Local governments can use franchise fees for a number of purposes, ranging from general services to funding public, educational and governmental (PEG) access channels.

According to a memo from village Manager Joseph Madore, the franchise fee is set at 5 percent of the cable company’s gross revenues as defined in the franchise agreement.

For a number of years now, the village has been giving 50 percent of its franchise fees to OCTV and retaining the other half.

Madore reported the municipality collected a total of $55,460 in franchise fees last year from AT&T and Charter. Of that, $27,730 was used to fund OCTV and the village kept the rest.

Beginning this year, OCTV is also going to receive an estimated $6,324 in PEG fees from AT&T through the village. Like franchise fees, PEG fees will also paid by subscribers, but, according to state law, PEG fees must only be used for the production of PEG programming, of which OCTV is the sole provider in this community.

OCTV asked the village to consider giving it 100 percent of the franchise fees, something which Oxford Township has been doing for a number of years.

Teri Stiles, production manager for OCTV, previously told council the additional money “would help us as far as getting another part-time person to meet the demands” of the community when it comes to coverage and programming.

“We really do have a great following in this community and people continue to ask us to do more,” Stiles told council at its May 8 meeting. “So, we’re trying. We’re doing our best.”

The decision to continue keeping half of the franchise fees was not an easy one for some council members.

Councilman Joe Frost admitted he struggled with the issue.

“OCTV does incredible work and they provide incredible service to our community at large,” he said.

But with the M-24 reconstruction project, slated for 2020, “knocking on the door,” Frost wants to see the village’s portion of the franchise fees used to “clean up” the rights-of-way, especially behind the buildings downtown, that currently look “quite unsightly.” He cited “heaving” bricks around infrastructure as an example.

Once that’s done, Frost suggested council revisit the franchise fees issue next year.

Councilwoman Maureen Helmuth, who cast the lone dissenting vote, believes OCTV does “a great job” and the village should not be relying on cable money to help supplement its budget.

“I think we all need to learn to stand on our own feet with our own funding and this is not our funding,” she said.

Although he believes “there’s no question (as) to the valuable service OCTV provides” to the community, Councilman Erik Dolan took issue with providing more funding to the station given “we are looking at not just the possibility, but the probability, that in time,” cable service “is ultimately going to be phased out.”

“Cable use is deteriorating,” said Dolan, and “as technology advances, it’s going to continue.”

It’s been widely reported the cable TV industry is losing large numbers of subscribers due to the growth of digital media, the expansion of social media, the proliferation of mobile devices and people using them to watch video content, and the increase in people viewing downloaded or streamed video as opposed to traditional television.

Dolan also expressed concern “about the fact that we have no tangible measure of (OCTV) users.”

Given that, he believes the franchise fees should be used to benefit the majority of the community as opposed to an “undefined” number.

At the May 8 meeting, Stiles explained the issues regarding viewership numbers.

“I have no idea what kind of numbers we have on air because (Charter and AT&T) will not give us those numbers,” she said. “They don’t give those numbers out to anyone.”

The only numbers OCTV has are derived from people viewing its many programs via the popular video-sharing website YouTube.

“We’re getting 10,000 (views) a month,” Stiles told council. “We’re looking at (growing to) 160,000 views (in a year) by next year.”

Stiles said people are definitely watching OCTV and they expect to see certain programs. “If there’s a . . . church program that’s not on or if we’ve missed something, people call us,” she said. “They hold our feet to the fire.”