Naperville considering request to bolster funding for NCTV17

Naperville City Council members are looking for options to help Naperville Community Television.

Councilman Benny White said the nonprofit station is facing financial challenges amid declining revenues from cable television fees. Since 2018, the station has seen a 22% decrease in Public Educational and Government, or PEG, funding as residents opt for streaming subscriptions over cable.

“The current state for them isn’t really a sustainable model,” White said at Tuesday’s council meeting.

NCTV17 Executive Director Liz Spencer Thursday said when she joined the station 22 years ago, PEG funding covered the station’s entire $300,000 budget. Today, PEG funding covers roughly 30% of the station’s $1.35 million budget.

She added that while PEG funding has dropped 22%, the station also has seen costs increase by about 30%.

City staff is expected to make a presentation to council members at their June 18 meeting.

In 2023, NCTV17 received $657,370 from the city, which includes PEG funding. This year, the city budgeted $642,000 for the television station. The amount awarded includes fees collected from cable subscribers and money paid by the city to NCTV17 for the government services portion of the channel. The station records and airs city council meetings.

Councilman Ian Holzhauer, who served on the NCTV17 board before joining the city council, said the station has taken a conservative approach to budgeting. He and White noted the station has cut its staff from 21 full-time employees in 2018 to the equivalent of 13.5 full-time employees today.

“I don’t think they spent extravagantly,” Holzhauer said Tuesday. “I take their request pretty seriously now.”

Council members also noted the station provides community programming, such as coverage of high school sporting events along with daily local news updates.

Before the COVID pandemic, the station drew about 40,000 views to its website each month. During the pandemic, that jumped to 250,000 views per month and now stands at about 120,000 per month, Spencer said.

In addition to its traditional television station, programs can be viewed on the NCTV17 YouTube channel and its website.