I'm sorry, but you're completely wrong. A traditional TV station is not subject to these franchise fees. Traditional stations receive their radio frequency al

I'm sorry, but you're completely wrong. A traditional TV station is not subject to these franchise fees. Traditional stations receive their radio frequency allocations from the FCC. A cable provider who lays physical cables in the ground pays a franchise fee to the community for the right to lay those cables on public land. The justification for this fee was that it increased community costs (it's more expensive to lay and maintain water and sewer pipes, for example, and digging up part of the road to lay the lines will result in the roads needing to be redone sooner even if they're patched). Netflix, Hulu, and satellite providers do not use public right of ways. Sure, you may watch Netflix over DSL provided by your cable provider, but the cable provider has already paid the fee.