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Longmont Public Media opened its doors in 2020 as a media makerspace and public access television station. On Tuesday, Sergio Angeles, executive director and co-founder of LPM presented a quarterly report to the Longmont City Council and announced the organization is ready to step into a new phase.
LPM is in the second year of a 2-year contract with the city of Longmont which awards the nonprofit just over $300,000 a year in franchise fees to produce video and live-streaming services for all city council and planning and zoning meetings and around 40 hours of content production a week for the city of Longmont. The contract includes 100% of the PEG, or Public, Educational and Governmental Access Support Fees. These fees are imposed on all video service providers that use public rights-of-way in a community.
LPM uses these fees for capital improvements including providing a range of video equipment to its members. These items are available for rent, either for a fee or for free based on a person’s membership status, Angeles said.
The nonprofit offers a free membership to all of Longmont residents which allows them access to the building — located at 457 Fourth Ave. — and in-studio equipment during normal business hours. LPM also offers paid memberships that offer a variety of perks based on the membership level.
In 2023, LPM recorded 365 free and 139 paid memberships which brought in $34,000 in membership revenue, a 44% increase over 2022. The nonprofit hopes to increase memberships by roughly 200 members in 2024 which should increase its membership revenue by 30%, Angeles told the city council.
In addition to its many educational programs which include courses on video editing, AI use in media and film production, LPM is looking to start a job training program. It has examined how other programs in the area work and hopes to implement a program within the year. Angeles said the program could be delayed due to increases in the minimum wage, preventing the nonprofit from being able to afford the increased wages trainees would get.
In the meantime, LPM works with Boulder County Workforce and Crossroads School to offer internships to students in the area.
LPM recognizes that more and more people are switching from Comcast, which provides the franchise fees to the city of Longmont. As people switch from the cable provider the amount of funding the city receives and the amount received by LPM each year is reduces. LPM received 50% of the fees in the last contract. Angeles said his staff are reviewing new avenues for revenue growth in the future to compensate for the revenue loss.
Over the next few months, Angeles said he would be working on the terms for the contract renewal with the city of Longmont. He plans to ask for 100% of the franchise fees in his proposal, a topic that has gone back and forth over the years. He asked the council for input on what they would like to see to agree to award LPM more of the fees in future agreements.
