SUPPORT YOUR WHITE PLAINS COMMUNITY MEDIA BY TELLING YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TO SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY MEDIA REINVESTMENT ACT
WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER MARCH 3, 2025
There is a movement to get support for the Community Media Reinvestment Act.
What this will do is impose an excise tax on services providing viewing entertainment.
This includes various streaming services such as Netflix, Apple TV, Sling TV, and Direct TV.
As you may be aware, the franchise fee imposed on Verizon and OPTIMUM (in White Plains) is 5%.
There is a decline in this direct service as people are moving towards other streaming programs.
With this decline, it directly affects all local community access.
We are able to provide a space for important matters for our community. This legislation will ensure that there is no reduction in support for and investment in local video programming. This includes public, educational and governmental access.
Other local public access centers have taken the lead in this campaign, specifically BronxNet, NorthShore TV, and MNN.
Let your local representative know how important public access is to your community!
Click on the link below. Enter your street address and it will bring up the representatives in your area. You may personalize it. Here’s a sample of the letter:
I want to ask you to support the Community Media Reinvestment Act – Bill # A5900 in the New York State Assembly and Bill # 2581 in the New York State Senate.
For years, my community media access center has been an important part of the media landscape like our public access counterparts throughout the state. They have trained hundreds of community residents in television production, some of whom have gone on to secure professional careers in the industry. They also work with many not-for-profit agencies to help them reach a larger audience.
The funding model for community television must change if it is to continue to fulfill its commitment to the community. Subscriber based franchise fees can no longer be the sole source of revenue for community television. Streaming services provide content, at the consumers’ expense, with no community reinvestment. Migration away from traditional cable television should not end in a loss of revenue for community television. New streams of revenue must be brought into the funding arena to sustain our public access centers. Streaming providers operating in New York State earn millions of dollars from subscribers and they need to support public access television as a form of community reinvestment.
We ask you to support the Community Media Reinvestment Act to ensure that people all over New York State have access to media resources and education in the future.
Thank you for your support !
Instructions for Using Portal:
1. Visit the advocacy portal:
2. Enter your street address and zip code.
3. Click “GO” to proceed.
4. Enter your personal message in the framed box in the letter.
5. Copy and paste your personal message from the first letter to the framed box in the second letter.
6 Review the information and confirm your support.
7. Input your contact details.
8. Click “SEND” to submit your support letter to elected officials
