📺 Old Laws, New Tech: Why Outdated Legislation Threatens More Than Just Local TV

At BCTV, we often talk about the importance of community media—but the truth is, the issue goes far beyond what you see on your screen.

We recently produced a short video called Old Laws, New Tech to explain a pressing issue facing not just media centers like ours, but communities across Michigan. At the center of it all is a decades-old law that no longer reflects how people consume content today. The law governs how cable companies pay for access to public infrastructure—fees that once felt like a technicality, but now play a critical role in funding much more than television.

Here’s what many don’t realize:

📡 Cable fees help fund public safety.

🏞️ They help maintain local parks.

🚧 They support road improvements.

🎬 And yes, they fund your local cable programming, too.

If these fees disappear—which is happening as people stop subscribing to cable and switch to fiber—so do the dollars that support these vital public services.