For more than three decades, NewTV has served as Newton’s hub for civic storytelling through its public, education, and government (PEG) channels and weekly Newton News. Executive Director Bob Kelly told Fig City News that NewTV is adapting its funding system to account for consumers “cutting the cord” on cable TV due to the rise of streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu.
Under the federal framework established by the Cable Act of 1992, local access centers like NewTV are financed largely through franchise fees paid by cable TV providers – money collected from subscribers and passed through to municipalities like Newton to support PEG channels. Now, with cable subscribers dwindling, NewTV and other access stations are backing statewide legislation that would apply a similar fee to streaming platforms, to help replace the revenue lost to cord-cutting.
NewTV’s public channel allows residents to produce their own shows and other types of programming. In the educational channel, local school students and interns learn production and storytelling skills. The government channel is responsible for broadcasting (and storing) videos of meetings of the City Council, School Committee, and other governmental bodies – all of which expanded to include Zoom meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I look at us as a community center with a media flair,” Kelly said.
From the Control Room
Inside NewTV’s studio on Needham Street, News Director Jenn Adams sits in the control room, taking notes and monitoring the prompter as Gina Dacey, an intern, reads the news updates for Wednesday, October 15.
Adams, who has been with NewTV for over two decades (and started as an intern herself), oversees the newsroom’s coverage of City meetings, press conferences, and local events, ensuring the community has access to full, unedited information.
Adams told Fig City News that the media outlet’s purpose is to promote transparency across the Newton community.
“To me, NewTV is about giving the opportunity not only for residents to understand what their government is doing, but also to provide an outlet for the residents to make their voices heard using their First Amendment, free-speech rights,” Adams said.
Adams has trained many student journalists over the years. Her philosophy centers on accuracy, fairness, and hands-on learning. She pushes interns to “be a fly on the wall with a camera,” teaching them to observe and report without bias.
“My goal has always been to train aspiring broadcast journalists to be the best that they can be, as well as make mistakes,” Adams said. “Because to me, we’re a stepping ground for the next step.”
She takes pride in seeing former interns now working in national and regional markets – including at CNN and WCVB.
Adams noted that NewTV has adapted by expanding digitally – creating Newton News and the NewTV Government YouTube channels, distributing newsletters, and modernizing equipment. Still, she acknowledged that declining cable subscriptions have strained NewTV’s ability to upgrade technology and maintain studios for public use.
The Problem
Executive Director Bob Kelly detailed how NewTV’s funding – historically 4% of Newton cable subscribers’ bills – has eroded as cord-cutting accelerates. Currently, Kelly said the City of Newton keeps 1% of the 5% cable fee for legal and other miscellaneous fees associated with the City’s Telecommunications Fund and passes the remaining 4% to NewTV. Kelly said he hopes the new administration will consider giving the station the full 5% share.
He said Newton once had roughly 29,000 cable subscribers; now it’s below 14,000. The general trend of decline prompted NewTV’s Future Forward fundraising campaign, launched at a Gala at the Newton Marriott on September 30, to notify the community and draw new support from business and civic leaders.
“The campaign is really alerting everybody that, hey, we’re in trouble,” Kelly said. “We won’t be around much longer, if we don’t do something.”
The problem, Kelly said, goes beyond Newton as more residents across Massachusetts shift to streaming platforms. Those services are not bound by the same franchise obligations as traditional cable companies.
Regarding the statewide tax bill that would extend franchise-like fees to major streaming providers, Kelly noted that the money would flow into a new Streaming Entertainment Fund, which would distribute revenue among the state, municipalities, and community media centers like NewTV. Kelly said many states across the country have enacted similar measures, and he argued Massachusetts should follow suit.
Adams supports the proposed streaming entertainment bill, calling it “virtually the same thing” as the original Cable Act model, just updated for modern viewing habits.
Kelly framed it as a “fairness issue” because streamers use the same public rights-of-way as cable companies but contribute nothing back to support community media. “If you look at the cable wire that hangs over the streets and connects to your house,” he said, “it doesn’t change when people switch from cable to streaming.” He said the infrastructure stays the same, but the streaming services don’t have to pay any of the fees.
“They [streaming companies] are making billions of dollars off consumers in Massachusetts without giving anything back,” Kelly said.
Young Voices
While Kelly focuses on the policy and financial realities that will shape NewTV’s future, the organization’s impact can be seen most clearly in the people who have passed through its newsroom and studio. For many, NewTV has served as a first step into the communications field — a place to learn every aspect of reporting, from shooting and editing to anchoring and producing. That legacy continues today.
Gina Dacey graduated from Boston University with a degree in Film and Television in May 2024. Although she hadn’t formally studied journalism, she told Fig City News, nearly everything she’s learned about reporting has come through her time at NewTV. Dacey works on Newton News, filming, interviewing, editing, and voicing her own stories each week. She also freelances for NewTV’s government and education coverage, filming public events like environment panels and library meetings.
Dacey said she values the chance to practice all the storytelling skills, which has helped her understand the full production process. Dacey’s roommate at BU studied journalism and would often tell Dacey about her projects. From that, Dacey said she never thought she could just go up to interview people, but now it’s become routine for her.
“It’s been really cool to get to know a lot of different people and get to learn about different things happening in Newton,” said Dacey, who lives in Westwood, Massachusetts.
Dacey credits Adams for giving her space to learn by doing, saying the feedback she receives after each story helps her grow rapidly. Dacey said the entire staff makes the experience of working at NewTV enjoyable.
“Everyone I met here has been really nice and welcoming to me,” she said.
After earning her master’s degree from Boston University during the pandemic, Ophelia Adjei-Awuah joined NewTV as a reporter and anchor. She produced stories across Newton, including local politics, community issues, and City Hall coverage via Zoom. Often operating solo, she learned to do many things on her own with oversight from Adams.
“At that time, there was nobody else,” Adjei-Awuah said. “It was just me.”
She said she gained confidence approaching sources and building community contacts who would later tip her off to stories, and she learned to uphold ethics and objectivity while staying connected to the people she covered.
Adjei-Awuah said Adams provided freedom rather than micromanagement, allowing interns to follow stories from start to finish. Nearly everyone who has trained under Adams, Adjei-Awuah said, has gone on to succeed professionally.
“If you’re doing something wrong, then she will correct you, but then she lets you flourish,” Adjei-Awuah said.
Adjei-Awuah called stations like NewTV “hidden gems” that give aspiring journalists unmatched, hands-on experience. She has transferred her skills to working at CNN over the past three years, working her way up to be an associate producer. She said she knows all the elements that are required for a news package to be successful through her experience at NewTV.
Adjei-Awuah warned that if centers like NewTV lose funding, communities lose civic engagement, accountability, and future storytellers. Large outlets like CNN, she added, depend on local reporting.
Newton’s Living Record
Greg Reibman, president and CEO of the Charles River Chamber of Commerce — and a former journalist — described NewTV as a resource “we’ve come to take for granted.” He said it’s been one of the few consistent media presences in Newton through decades of change.
He said NewTV’s news program, led by Jenn Adams, has long offered unbiased reporting, while its public affairs programming and archived municipal meetings serve as Newton’s main form of digital record-keeping.
“They have been that one steady force that the city could turn to for political news and local development news,” Reibman said.
Reibman acknowledged that the loss of cable subscribers poses a serious threat to community access media statewide. He also noted that NewTV’s hybrid nonprofit/for-profit model — including its in-house production company, Another Age Productions — gives it a smart financial foundation, allowing it to rent space, share resources, and bring in commercial revenue to supplement shrinking cable fees.
He said the Chamber itself has hired Another Age Productions for video work promoting local businesses, and he praised the quality of their work.
Kelly said Another Age, in addition to NewTV’s in-house podcast, helps sustain the organization and is a potential area of for-profit growth in the future.
Reibman said it would be a major blow to the community if NewTV had to scale back, particularly because of its archive of decades of municipal meetings and local programming.
“That’s the living history of Newton. If we were to lose that resource, that would be a big loss,” Reibman said.
For now, the station continues to broadcast, record, and train — relying on community support and hopes that the state’s proposed streaming entertainment bill will pass, giving public-access stations like NewTV a fairer share of the digital economy.
Kelly sees NewTV evolving into a hub for digital literacy and media education – teaching podcasting, video editing, and social-media production tools.
Despite funding concerns, Adams remains hopeful. “It’s not doom and gloom yet,” Adams said. “I’m hoping partnerships, donations, and working together can help us stay and survive to provide these services that not everyone gets.”
Contributions can be make on NewTV’s Donate page.
