Community media in Massachusetts relies heavily on franchise fees from local cable contracts, which provide up to 5% of cable companies’ gross revenue to support local programming. However, with cable subscriptions dropping by more than 50% in the past five years, funding for community media has sharply declined. At the same time, streaming services—delivered over the same infrastructure but not subject to these regulations—contribute nothing. As federal lawmakers push for deregulation of cable and broadband, there is growing concern that the remaining funding for community media could disappear entirely.