Saint Paul considers community partnership with SPNN to run telecast services ahead of 2026 franchise talks
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Summary
OTC and St. Paul Neighborhood Network presented a proposal to shift day-to-day control-room operations to SPNN while OTC retains oversight, aiming to protect live broadcasts of city and county meetings amid falling PEG revenues and upcoming franchise and telecast agreement milestones in 2026.
The Office of Technology and Communications (OTC) and St. Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) outlined a plan to keep Saint Paul's public meeting broadcasts running uninterrupted as cable-based revenue declines and key agreements converge in 2026. Chase Maxwell, communications and digital media manager in OTC, told the Budget & Finance Committee the city is negotiating a new Comcast franchise and approaching the end of a two-year telecast service agreement with Ramsey County, and that a long-tenured OTC staffer is retiring.
Why it matters: the city charter requires OTC to ensure council meetings air live on the government access channel, be replayed on an approved schedule and remain available online. Those services are delivered under a PEG (Public, Educational and Government) model funded in part by cable franchise and PEG allocations; OTC said franchise and central technology funds cover infrastructure while some operational subscriptions and staff remain general-fund supported.
Maxwell said SPNN functions as the designated public/educational partner in the Comcast franchise while OTC provides government access. "We want to ensure that we're protecting uninterrupted access" to broadcasts as these agreements are renegotiated and staffing changes occur, he said.
SPNN executive director Bonnie Schumacher told the committee national declines in cable subscriptions have reduced PEG revenue for community media. "We've seen a 40% decline in the last five years of our income," Schumacher said, adding that for SPNN that decline equates to roughly $300,000 less revenue than about four years ago. SPNN operates four local channels, provides production and education programs and has been diversifying funding with grants and earned-revenue work.
OTC presented three options: maintain the status quo; a community partnership model in which SPNN staff operate the control room under OTC oversight; or vendor-managed services such as a fully managed offering from Granicus. The committee heard that OTC prefers the community partnership model as a potentially lower-cost, locally rooted option that could be structured to be general-fund neutral by reallocating capital PEG dollars and contributions to the chambers technology fund.
Maxwell described four budgeting "buckets": operations, streaming and public-access tools, capital/chambers infrastructure, and PEG allocations. He said OTC currently takes a smaller portion of PEG (about $185,000 a year restricted to capital) and proposed reallocations that would preserve investments in chambers infrastructure while using PEG and city/county contributions to support a contract with SPNN.
Council members asked whether SPNN staff would be onsite during meetings and if OTC would retain capacity for other communications work; Maxwell said SPNN staff would operate live meeting coverage and OTC would continue oversight while gaining capacity for strategic communications and web/social work. One committee member voiced support for the community partnership option during the Q&A.
Next steps: OTC and SPNN said they will continue to refine cost estimates and contract scopes, brief council members as renegotiation and telecast-agreement deadlines approach, and notify residents and media about any changes. No formal action or vote was taken during the presentation.