1984
As a result of the Cable Television Act of 1984, Millbrae was granted a single broadcast camera for televising public meetings. After two years of bargaining, an agreement was reached between the City of Millbrae and the cable company, which agreed to provide $57,000 toward the equipment needed to start a community television station. One of the first cities in the region to adopt PEG, Millbrae had the means to broadcast live and videotape city events even if it didn’t have the know-how at the time.
1997
Millbrae Community Television (MCTV) is born! As a fledgling nonprofit tasked with managing the PEG station, the organization first operated out of van, then a trailer and eventually moved to a 250-square foot office at City Hall, where a small staff with barely enough elbow room managed a robust station covering local and county affairs. At the same time, MCTV began expanding its professional services to other cities.
2007
On our 10th anniversary, MCTV inaugurated live streaming over the internet and video on demand, years ahead of our neighboring cities.
2011
MCTV became the first community station in San Mateo County to offer live video streaming to mobile phones and tablets, both iOS and Android. We have a fiber network that reaches out to our Recreation Center, Library, Taylor Middle and Mills High schools to provide LIVE streaming video and television, courtesy of our Comcast franchise agreement.
2015
With generous support from the City of Millbrae, MCTV opened the North Peninsula Community Media Center in a formerly unused space at City Hall. The Media Center embodies a vision developed nearly 20 years ago by Millbrae citizens for a space in which the community can learn, share and grow by telling their stories. MCTV knows everyone and every organization has a story to tell. It is our mission to help tell those community stories.
2020/21
With a new leadership team in place and the support of new community partners, MCTV began 2020 with the top priority of expanding of our “Original Productions” department. As we all know, 2020 had other plans. Like so many others, MCTV when faced with a pandemic needed to pivot to meet our community needs. We adapted all our public meeting services to a remote teleconference format, and provided media services for a number of virtual events in the community, including the Millbrae Tree Lighting, MESD 5th & 8th grade car parade promotions, Black Lives Matter and anti-racism rallies, Lunar New Year celebrations, online fundraisers, a number of town hall meetings and even virtual groundbreaking and grand opening ceremonies. Thanks to our strong relationship with City Hall, we were able to use our media technology to keep the public informed about important health-related news, keep residents connected during shelter-in-place orders and make sure citizens remained engaged in important milestones such as the 2020 Census and elections.
2022
As the world returned to more in-person operations, MCTV continued its growth, adding service for multiple other San Mateo clients. We continue to work to improve and enhance our service offerings.