Executive Summary

The Focus: Broadband Relevance

The Pew Research Center reported in June 2009 that households who have yet to subscribe to broadband in the home list "relevance" to their lifestyle as the #1 reason for their lack of use. More than price, availability and usability combined, the primary factor preventing predominantly low-income communities from using broadband is the perception that the resource is not relevant to them (PEW IALP, Apr. 2009).

Our mainstream media and marketing systems are designed to deliver eyeballs to advertisers, to connect consumers with marketers. The ineffectiveness of this system in reaching low-income communities is no mystery; when the per-capita buying power of a community is low, the profit motive of targeting those communities is low.

The Broadband Awareness through Community Media Initiative (BATCMI) brings together a coalition of noncommercial, community media organizations from across the nation, each with a unique capacity and motivation to educate and engage disconnected, disadvantaged communities and empower their constituents. The approach of the BATCMI is to modernize a collection of Public Access TV (PATV) stations into a collaborative network leveraging a participatory new approach enabled by the Open Media Project (OMP) software. This set of open source, web2.0 tools was developed by the Open Media Foundation in Denver, Beta-tested in 6 other cities through a Knight News Challenge grant, and has engaged the communities served in broadband use. The model mobilizes early adopters in disconnected communities, supports them in generating online content and provides incentives for encouraging increased broadband use in their communities.

That content will be shared via the OMP software, curated, compiled and crafted by Free Speech TV into an artful collection of new perspectives on broadband relevance among diverse, vulnerable communities. ISPs and mainstream media institutions are not positioned to address the primary deterrents to internet use in disconnected communities. Relevance in these communities can only be conveyed from the perspective of individuals living within the communities themselves. PATV stations are designed to train and support these individuals in sharing their perspectives through the media.

The Medium: Local Perspectives for National TV

Any effective promotion of broadband in disconnected communities must be distributed through TV, the most ubiquitous delivery medium available, with more audience hours than web, radio and print combined. Free Speech TV (FSTV), will share the best user-generated content promoting broadband use in disconnected communities with over 30 million homes via Satellite and Cable TV, and millions more via the web.

The BATCMI Initiative employs a distributed, participatory model that empowers individuals to directly engage in the media conversation. Using Cable TV, DISH Network, DirecTV and the Internet as distribution outlets, our model reaches disconnected communities with user-generated content from their own communities and demonstrates the relevance of broadband from the perspective of early adopters within those neighborhoods, not from the marketing department of an ISP.

Innovation: Participatory, Open-Source

The OMP's open-source tools put local perspectives on-line and place communities in-charge of their own media by enabling the community to drive the programming schedule. In Denver's low-income communities, this model has proven effective by providing incentive for individuals to encourage their friends and neighbors to get on-line, watch media produced in their neighborhood and vote on it so that their shows earn repeat airings and more prime-time exposure.

With the BATCMI, we propose cooperating with 20 PATV stations, each focused on serving communities with below 40% broadband adoption. By providing new broadband equipment and training, we will equip partner stations to support local production of media addressing broadband relevance from the perspective of local disconnected communities. These perspectives, and the emerging best-practices, will be highlighted and distributed nation-wide on both DishNetwork and DirecTV by FSTV.

In this way, the BATCMI reaches over 75 million individuals (30 million Cable & Satellite homes) each year, resulting in a low cost-per-subscriber outcome, verified through periodic phone-surveys of thousands of FSTV viewers. The BATCMI anticipates generating a total of 70, 517 new broadband subscribers over the 3-year grant period through direct service, web and TV.

The Open Media Project Approach:

First tested in Denver, Colorado from 2006 to 2008, the OMP model proved successful in transforming PATV in Denver into a force for broadband adoption. In three years, Denver's station went from providing no internet-related services whatsoever, to training and equipping over 500 community members to create online video each year. With a broadcast schedule that is based on community votes, the system provides incentive for individuals to encourage broadband use in their communities, watching and voting on their favorite content from their neighborhood so that it receives more TV airtime.

Where PATV in Denver once received $1million in annual support, our new station (Denver Open Media) uses open-source, web2.0 tools to serve more members and generate more content than its predecessor, with zero operating support from the City or cable provider.

The second phase of the Open Media Project was made possible through a Knight News Challenge Award and included a revision of the software to be tested at six PATV stations across the nation. With great success in the first two phases, the BATCMI represents an opportunity to demonstrate the true power of this model for transforming the nation's under-utilized PATV stations into a network of cutting edge community media centers, stimulating broadband adoption in disconnected communities. The model guides those organizations through a modernization process that expands their services beyond a limited focus on Cable TV technologies and supports them as they develop the new skills, knowledge and resources they need to bring the power of the Internet to disengaged constituents. With the two-year Knight News Challenge grant culminating in June 2010, this project is now poised to be put to action for the BATCMI.

Job Creation:

The BATCMI anticipates generating 27 direct job-years and 56 indirect job-years. More specifically, we have budgeted 9 direct hires among the four main partner organizations and at least a dozen more part-time and contract positions. In addition, each of the 20 PATV partner sites will need to hire or re-train staff to maintain the new business model made possible through the initiative. Together, these partners anticipate a total of 37 direct hires and 210 indirect jobs created or saved through their participation in the initiative.

In Denver, when operating support for PATV was eliminated, all 10 jobs were lost and the station was closed. The same OMP software and model designated for BATCMI enabled us to re-launch the station one year later with no operating support from the city, eventually re-hiring to surpass the staff size of the previous PATV provider. We anticipate a similar outcome in several of the partner stations, many of whom are facing steep budget cuts, a trend across the PATV community.

Evaluation:

The ACM, a membership organization representing nearly 3,000 community media organizations in the US, is an ideal partner to manage evaluation of the program. Developing and hosting the resulting knowledge-base will allow them to assess the program against the best practices tracked through this and other initiatives in the PATV community. Their reputation in the community will also facilitate the widespread adoption of the most effective approaches for broadband adoption.

MIT's Center for Future Civic Media (C4) is a hub for the world's most innovative efforts for leveraging media and technology in the public interest. Their support of the BATCMI's evaluation efforts will be pivotal in combining advances from other sectors of the media and technology world, and for conveying the results of the BATCMI in the larger context of the many initiatives in which C4 is engaged.

The end-result of the BATCMI is the nationally-distributed weekly TV series "An Internet for All" on FSTV. This series will compile excerpts from the 20 PATV partners, sharing diverse perspectives on broadband relevance from the perspectives of individuals within disconnected communities. FSTV's phone-bank, which surveys an average of nearly 5,000 viewers each year, will be used to gather affordable, accurate samples of broadband adoption among FSTV viewers.

Budget:

The Open Media Foundation, together with our 23 partners, is requesting $2,463,030 from the NTIA for the Broadband Awareness through Community Media Initiative. The total budget over a three-year period, including all matching cash and allocated equipment and staff time is $7,648,966