By ROD LEE

Viewers of programming on Northbridge Community Television (NCTV) are well aware of the station’s longstanding issue with cable service provided to the town by Charter Communications, also now known as Charter Spectrum.

Bill Tartaglia, who has been director of the local-access channel for almost twenty-two years, certainly is.

The political-discourse show featuring Harry Berkowitz as host has been a fixture on NCTV for years.

Mr. Tartaglia was front and center on the evening of January 24th at a public hearing held in the selectmen’s chambers at Northbridge Town Hall to run down by way of a video presentation how NCTV contributes to townspeople’s way of life—and to reiterate his concerns about Charter’s failings as a cable provider.

His comments, and those offered by Harry Berkowitz who chairs the town’s Cable Advisory Committee, and others in attendance, were timely; NCTV’s contract with Charter is set to expire in May, and there is uncertainty as to whether a new ten-year deal is in the offing—and whether Charter will accede to NCTV’s “wish list” going forward.

The rub comes in Charter’s seeming unwillingness to engage in any sort of dialogue with the town. That is worrisome as NCTV looks for an increase in both the amount of money Charter forks over for programming and for equipment.

“We are at 3.5% of what Charter grosses in Northbridge, and that’s in the millions,” Mr. Berkowitz said. “For us to stay in business we have to see that increased to 5 percent. For equipment, we are asking for $130,000. The only money NCTV gets is from cable. Charter owns the fiber and we have no control over it; and Verizon is not interested in coming in (as a replacement cable provider).”

Over the years, NCTV has consistently upgraded both its equipment and the content it offers viewers—with a staff of just a few employed individuals, and “active volunteers.” As Mr. Tartaglia noted, everything from Tai Chi to Days of Vinyl, Board of Selectmen and School Committee meetings and Memorial Day exercises are available—along with an App store, Google play, ROKU, live stream, video on demand and archives, for example.

Mr. Berkowitz, fighting a cold but fully engaged, said “the last contract allowed us to upgrade to where we are today.”

Charter is an often unresponsive partner, Mr. Tartaglia, Mr. Berkowitz and Town Manager Adam Gaudette said.

There is not much the town can do, Mr. Tartaglia said, echoing the thoughts of a woman in attendance who said “they have us over a barrel.”

Charter was invited by certified mail to the public hearing, but was a no show. Charter’s community rep doesn’t return telephone calls, Mr. Gaudette added.

Compounding the situation is that Charter is losing subscribers, which means the cost for the rest of its customers goes up; and with more and more people switching to streaming, Northbridge faces the dilemma of how to recoup those funds for regular cable.

One of NCTV’s biggest complaints about Charter is that the company “changed our channels” from low on the dial to the 190s “without our input,” Mr. Tartaglia said.

That happened a while ago despite strong protest from local access.

Charter is a huge company with 32 million customers in 41 states and more than 93,000 employees.

Charter has an iron grip on its relationship with the town of Northbridge.

“It’s a monopoly,” Mr. Gaudette said, just before the public hearing—the first of two—ended.

Contact Rod Lee at [email protected] or 774-232-2999.