Georgetown City Council approves GTV programming plan

The statewide franchise agreement also includes an additional 1 percent Public, Educational and Governmental, or PEG, access channel fee that would help cover capital costs related to the operations of the PEG channels. The 1 percent fee is expected to bring in $140,000 in revenue.

During the discussion, Gonzalez made a motion to remove the 1 percent PEG fee; however, the motion failed in a 3-4 vote.

"I believe that we should not add the extra 1 percent fee to the Suddenlink customers in Georgetown and return that as a credit. I further think we should take part of the regular franchise fee we are receiving and designate a portion of that for programming or things related to the cable channel," Gonzalez said. "I think we are already getting the franchise fee, and we shouldn't charge them another fee, even though it's allowed by law. It's just another tax."

The statewide franchise would also allow the city two additional PEG channels. The plan approved by council suggests one channel be given to Georgetown ISD.

According to the plan, the district and the city would then be able to have their own programming.

"I would like to see more dialogue with the school district to identify how that relationship might be structured and if there is some revenue that might come from the school district to support their activities on this opportunity," Councilman Jerry Hammerlun said at the meeting.

City staff are also seeking to create a media specialist position that could start in January 2014 and produce video news segments and information spots for GTV, the city's website and social media sites. Funding for the position could come from revenue raised from the 5 percent cable franchise fee.