A county meeting that could have decided the fate of two public media organizations ended after 12 minutes Thursday night, leaving them unsure of their financial future.
The Sacramento Metropolitan Cable Television Commission, a government agency responsible for regulating cable and video franchises, ended their last meeting of the year without a clear 2026 budget picture for public media nonprofits like Access Sacramento and the Sacramento Educational Cable Consortium.
Aaron Heinreich, the executive director of who heads the Cable Consortium, said they’ve been left in the dark, wondering if they’ll get any funding at all.
“We’ve talked with teachers about, if we go away, what the impact will be,” he said. “And that means that over a short or longer period of time, depending on the school and the district, they will probably no longer have media education, they’ll just disappear.”
The SECC supports media programs in over 100 schools and 13 districts training teachers, providing equipment and helping produce newscasts and podcasts, according to Heinreich.
Emily Cho, a camera operator for NBC Sports, got her early media experience through the Cable Consortium broadcast program at Franklin High School.
“Without those programs, I don’t think I would be in media, like, at all right now,” Cho said. “Because a lot of what I did in high school related to them, it taught me how to use equipment and how to go through the whole process. That’s what got me interested in broadcast.”
For Access Sacramento, not having a fiscal plan in place going forward could mean the end of their film incubator program — A Place Called Sacramento.
The program helps aspiring filmmakers create short films about Sacramento.
Joe Barr, the board chair of Access Sacramento said they were prepared to give a presentation on merging the two organizations as a way to keep them afloat.
“For the adjournment to happen with no explanation was quite a surprise to us,” Barr said.
Executive director of the commission, Shawn Ayala, could not be reached for comment about why the meeting ended early.
The next Sacramento Metropolitan Cable Television Commission meeting is scheduled for March 2026.
Disclaimer: Joe Barr is a former CapRadio Employee.
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