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County Allowed To Sell Cable TV Ad Spots - If It's Careful

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By RICHARD MULLINS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 6, 2008

The Tampa Bay area could soon have another TV station competing for local advertising money, run by the government.

In a drive to raise revenue, Hillsborough County commissioners are pondering ways to sell commercials during the cable TV broadcasts of their meetings, similar to the sponsorships that companies like General Motors Corp. and State Farm Insurance buy on public broadcasting TV shows.

The move would mark a first for Hillsborough County, which broadcasts its meetings, seminars and other shows on an exclusive cable TV channel on Bright House Networks (Channel 622) and Verizon's FiOS cable systems (Channel 22).

Part of the issue is the cost to run the station itself. HTV, as the station is called, has 21 employees and a budget this year of $1.9 million, including a one-time $500,000 project to upgrade to digital TV equipment. The bulk of that money goes to televise meetings of the commission, the Tampa Port Authority, Planning Commission, land use meetings and other public information events.

Where the TV advertisement idea goes could take an important turn today, when commissioners receive a legal study that says the county can go ahead and sell TV spots as long as they aren't "commercials" that show product prices or comparisons with competing brands.

The idea originated last fall, when commissioners taking a retreat pondered new ways to raise revenue. Commissioners asked county lawyers to look into the legality of selling TV commercial spots. Today, commissioners will receive a legal opinion that says the county can go ahead with the plan - if done carefully.

That's because the government only has a cable TV channel through a carefully negotiated deal that allows Bright House and Verizon to sell cable TV in the area, and gives the county its own TV channel in exchange.

That agreement specifically says that "under no circumstances will commercial advertising be permitted" on the county's channel. But, there is a loophole. The county may accept monetary donations for recognizing "donors and sponsors." County lawyers said any on-air sponsorship should mirror those seen on the nonprofit WUSF, Channel 16 and WEDU, Channel 3, and offered an example script: "This program is made possible in part by Company name, serving the Tampa Bay area since year."

Selling that kind of TV spot could prove difficult.

First, there are some conflict of interest questions, HTV station manager Tammy Peralta said.

The county could not run sponsorships bought by companies doing business with the county, or that have matters before any county agency, or links to county commissioners. Political ads could also be troublesome.

"All those questions have definitely crossed our minds," Peralta said.

Also, HTV does not conduct regular ratings surveys, so it can't tell potential advertisers how many people the TV spots would reach. Ratings giant Nielsen does not track HTV either, primarily because it has no reach outside of the county.

"Their advertising potential would be rather limited," said Scott Liu, an advertising professor at the University of South Florida. Some public broadcasting stations do generate millions of dollars from sponsorships, Liu said, but those are for nationally popular programs like "Washington Week," "Nova" or "This Old House."

"And they have a Catch-22," Liu said, "because if it turned out to be a success, and they generated real revenue, it would raise questions about the government competing for advertising dollars with commercial stations."

So far, the effort has not drawn criticism from cable companies that carry the government channel, and would theoretically compete for advertising dollars in the area. Verizon officials said they don't see any effects from Verizon's own work to recruit advertisers. "Good luck," said spokesman Bob Elek.

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919 or rmullins@tampatrib.com.

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