NCTV, YCN Team-Up for Station

By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
NEWPORT- A collaboration between local television stations Newport Community Television and YCN has recently been announced.

The new format is set to be called NCTV Regional. The plan is to not only combine programming for the stations but also to open up programming for other communities. Currently, the only local New Hampshire communities with public access stations are Claremont and Newport. With this new format, they not only hope to be able to cover events in towns like Sunapee and New London, but through combined resources, potentially cover simultaneous live events.

Gregory Uhrin, owner of YCN, approached NCTV Executive Director John Lunn in regard to programming, and potentially switching from a for profit station to a non-profit. Lunn offered the idea of having YCN programming under the NCTV non-profit umbrella. That conversation resulted in the concept of creating NCTV Regional.

YCN, which had its broadcasting head in Claremont, was a for-profit company, but according to Lunn “that isn’t particularly sustainable” and Uhrin sought to switch to non-profit. Under the non-profit model, NCTV Regional will seek sponsorships rather than advertisements to help fund the station. These sponsorships would also allow for a more hyperlocal focus on businesses, with sponsorships coming from companies in the towns in which the programs air.

In the town of Newport, NCTV operates both television channels 8 and 10 for their programming. Under the new plan, channel 10 would remain primarily for traditional NCTV programming, such as town meetings, graduations, and sporting events. Channel 8 would be significantly more dedicated to programming for some of the new communities the channel would potentially be covering. This would allow for both stations to showcase live events on each station.

“The goal is to have it be so that someone in Newport could be watching the live Selectboard meeting and then switch to channel 10 and watch a live local football game,” said Lunn.

NCTV Regional not only wants to bring coverage to some of these other towns but hopes that it raises awareness of community members that they are able to create their own shows. Under public access guidelines, anyone living in any of the communities in which public access airs are able to create any television show they want, as long as it isn’t defamatory, an advertisement, or obscene.

Lunn and Uhrin have been in contact with other towns that might be folded into the NCTV Regional programming. Comcast, which utilizes each town’s infrastructure for their broadcasting, offers each town a franchising fee which can be used to help fund public access, but many towns in the area have instead put toward their general fund. Comcast also offers two channels to public access should they want to use them. Because many towns don’t, NCTV Regional hopes to acquire these stations and show programs from each of these towns at no cost to the taxpayer.

“Anyone that wants to come in from any community around that wants to come in and talk to us, we are in the Towle building on Main Street. They can come see how easy it is to come and make something. If people want to come down and see what’s involved, their imagination is the only thing that is limiting. You can use your phones now to film, there are a lot of easy ways to record video now,” Lunn.