A recent audit of the state Broadcast Educational Media Commission, or BEMC, found that fewer than half of Ohio’s public television stations and the channels they operate use the agency system devised to provide funding assistance for public-media programming.

Members of the state auditor’s Ohio Performance Team determined that the agency currently operates the Joint Master Control system “with excess capacity and maintains equipment and hardware that is unnecessary,” suggesting the need for possible budgetary or capacity changes.

One recommendation suggested members of the General Assembly consider whether the Joint Master Control system continue to operate.

The auditors noted that lawmakers should determine “if the commission structure is the most effective and responsive governance model or whether the operations of the Joint Master Control could be absorbed by another state agency, which could potentially reduce BEMC’s need for standalone finance, procurement, or IT services.”

The review also faulted the commission for a failure to consistently track inventory and usage in managing equipment replacement plans, a news release detailed.

Created in 1960, the BEMC distributes allocated state funds to public television and radio stations, supports Ohio Channel operations and operates the Joint Master Control system, which allows participating stations to reduce operational costs and devote more funding to programming, the release noted.

According to the review, BEMC received $10.6 million from the state’s General Revenue Fund in the 2024 fiscal year, distributing $6.5 million to public-media entities and spending $4.1 million for operations, mostly related to the Joint Master Control system.

BEMC also received about $1 million in capital funding for technology for the system in each of the past three two-year budgets.

The BEMC’s system “appears to be the largest state-run joint master control system in the country, with most states not offering a (Joint Master Control) model option for public television stations,” auditors wrote.

It was built to provide services to all eight Ohio public-media entities and the stations they operated at the time, the release provided.

The audit found that only three public-media entities and 21 of 42 channels use the system, while the remainder operate their own systems.

“BEMC has not adjusted to this reality and therefore has for several years been purchasing equipment that is unnecessary for its operational needs,” the Performance Team wrote in its review. “In addition, the commission’s overall inventory data is incomplete, which makes it difficult to properly plan for future purchasing needs or for oversight entities to provide checks and balances against agency requests.”

Among other recommendations, the audit urged the commission to set a deadline for public television stations to rejoin the Joint Master Control system, then reduce the system’s capacity to serve the stations that choose to participate, the release provided.

The BEMC should also improve its inventory management to gain an accurate accounting of the equipment it owns, the review noted.

“Having the useful life of all items aggregated in one location would allow BEMC to systematically plan for what items will need to be replaced and mitigate the chance of an item’s upcoming expiration going unnoticed,” auditors wrote.

The state auditor’s Ohio Performance Team reviews the operations of public agencies and programs and offers recommendations for improvements.