About Holyoke Media
Holyoke Media is an independent, non-profit, multimedia organization funded through the local cable franchise, which was founded with the goal of bringing local media to the city’s residents. Ever since public access television was first established in the United States in 1971, its promise has been to connect people with government, educational opportunities, and with one another. We achieve this by providing local journalism, offering educational courses in media production and literacy, and by supporting and fostering the arts, civic dialog and access to local government.
Mission
To provide a forum that enables and encourages the open exchange of ideas, information, and culture in the City of Holyoke.
Vision
Holyoke Media’s vision is to promote transparency in government and provide opportunities to elevate traditionally disenfranchised voices by literally and figuratively handing the mic to those most often left out of media production and dissemination.
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A vibrant new beginning for Holyoke Media!
With the establishment of the current cable TV contract with Comcast, Holyoke Media is finally able to position itself to serve the media needs of the City of Holyoke in the way Public Access media is meant to do. From our temporary headquarters in City Hall, we’ve already started to produce and distribute news and documentaries of local interest. We continue to provide coverage of City government meetings on cable channel 15. And we maintain an archive of community affairs and new videos on YouTube.
We are currently building out new office and studio space at One Court Plaza, in the heart of downtown.
New space; New Possibilities
Looking to the future, we will be able to provide the full spectrum of media services from our new studio. One Court Plaza will become a resource for all of the people of Holyoke from TV and streaming programming to live events to education.
When the new studio is completed, several new avenues will open up:
- We’ll have new opportunities for community members to learn about how video production works with dedicated educational space.
- Individuals and groups will be able to develop, produce, and distribute community-interest programming.
- The studio will be able to serve as a small performance/production space for live events.
- The facility will enable us to expand our news offerings, giving everyone in the City the chance to keep in touch with all the diverse communities of Holyoke.
How did we get here?
The original Public Access Corporation in Holyoke was founded and granted nonprofit status in 2002. It operated with a board comprised of the Mayor, City Solicitor, and President of the City Council. At that time, the majority of the Comcast-provided revenues were used to fund the Media Lab at Holyoke High School, as well as to fund specific community media projects. During this period, lasting until 2011, the City was receiving just 1% of the cable revenues.
With the renegotiation of the municipal cable contract in 2014, the percentage of cable revenues dedicated to public access was increased to 5%. Additionally, an effort began to create a new Public Access corporation that was more in line with Holyoke’s peer cities across the Commonwealth. In 2015, the City established Holyoke Community Media Inc. (HCMI), and a new interim Board of Directors was installed. The new board draws its membership from the Cable Advisory Committee which renegotiated the cable contract.
In September of 2016, the City, the school department, and HCMI agreed on a new formula that established how the cable franchise fees would be allocated, and it settled, in general terms, the services that the new public access corporation would provide. This agreement established that the schools and City would retain their existing funding. The new revenues would go to the access corporation to fund its set-up and operation.
In January of 2017, HCMI began receiving regular income from the franchise fee funds. This enable the company to begin hiring and expanding coverage. In February, HCMI received $1.35 million in accrued funds, enabling us to begin the search for a permanent home; bringing us to where we are today, on the cusp of a bright future!
What is PEG Access?
Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrow-cast through cable TV specialty channels. Public-access television was created in the United States between 1969 and 1971 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Public-access television is often grouped with public, educational, and government access television channels, by the acronym PEG.
Holyoke Media represents the next generation of PEG Access, with content delivery via the Internet, cable TV, and live in our studio.
