Missouri, where the entire movement to charge streaming companies cable industry-like “franchise fees” started, has shut the door on the gambit with new legislation. 

Republican Gov. Mike Parson on Tuesday signed into a law a bill that would restrict Missouri municipalities from charging companies ranging from Netflix to DirecTV — anyone who streams video — the kind of right-of-way charges cable companies are typically dinged for by digging trenches and attaching wires to power lines. 

Missouri became the 14th state to make that restriction, following Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee. 

In order to establish their physical infrastructure, cable companies have to pay franchise fees to municipalities. And, in 2018, Creve Coeur, Missouri sued Netflix and Hulu, demanding the companies pay similar tribute. 

Also read: Netflix, Hulu, Disney Sued Again Over Cable Franchise Fees

However, as noted by Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a conservative group founded by Grover Norquist: “Streamers use the internet to reach homes. This means they either use wireless, satellites, or existing cable connections to deliver content to homes and do not alter municipal infrastructure to reach customers.”

Last we checked, many of these same streamers use internet delivered via cable infrastructure. But DirecTV, which operators DirecTV Stream, lauded Missouri's decision. 

“This overwhelming and bipartisan vote by the Missouri legislature, and Governor Parson’s signing it into law, should put to rest any further notion that franchise fees apply to consumers who choose to stream their content," said Hamlin Wade, associate VP of external affairs at DirecTV, who worked on the legislation across each state, in a statement. 

As ATR noted, there are still plenty of local governments that are taxing video services via means other than franchise fees. 

Chicago, for example, imposed a 9% ding on streaming services, calling it an “amusement tax.” And of the 45 states with a general sales tax, 33 include video streaming services in their sales tax base, ATR said. 

These charges are passed on to consumers. In February, Netflix began charging users an additional 5.07% over their usual tier rate to offset state “communications taxes.” 

Discovery Education said it has expanded its partnership with Missouri’s Poplar Bluff Public Schools bringing the Discovery Communications’ unit’s digital social studies and science textbooks to junior and high school classrooms district wide.

Discovery Education will support the school system’s digital transformation in partnership with Mooresville Graded School District.

“We are thrilled to expand our collaboration with Discovery Education to provide our educators with resources that are relevant to the 21st Century learner, as well as critical to preparing students to be competitive in the global economy and meeting students’ instructional needs,” said Patty Robertson, assistant superintendent of curriculum at Poplar Bluff Public Schools in a statement. “Our partnerships with national leaders like Discovery Education and Mooresville Graded School District support us as we strive to educate all students to their full potential, and inspire them to be lifelong learners who possess the skills and knowledge necessary to be productive members in our changing world.”

Over the past two years, Poplar Bluff Public Schools has worked closely with Mooresville Graded School District (MGSD), which is nationally recognized for the success of its digital transformation and long-time partnership with Discovery Education,  in order to ensure their conversion to digital learning environments continues to positively impact student outcomes and engagement. The school district has hosted teachers from MGSD for numerous professional development days throughout the year, including the “Mooresville Institute,” which focused on the effective integration of digital technology into instruction.

The expanded six-year partnership with Discovery Education will support the district’s goal of providing creative and meaningful learning experiences for students to improve learning outcomes by integrating Discovery Education Science Techbook into junior and high school classrooms and Social Studies Techbook for all junior high students. Discovery Education’s digital textbook series promotes collaboration, creativity and participatory learning. The series delivers individualized resources and engages students in learning concepts through rich digital assets, including virtual labs, video clips, an interactive glossary and more. Poplar Bluff junior and high school students will also continue to use Discovery Education Streaming Plus, a comprehensive digital library of more than 150,000 learning assets aligned to state and national curriculum standards.

As part of its efforts to provide dynamic and interactive learning opportunities to all students, the school district issued MacBook Airs to 800 junior high students for use at school and at home during the 2013-2014 school year. This coming school year, 1,400 high-schoolers will also receive a laptop as part of the 1:1 learning initiative.

“Discovery Education is proud to be a partner working towards Poplar Bluff Public Schools’ mission of achieving excellence through learning: every child, every hour, every day,” said Jason Barnes, vice president, Discovery Education in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to support Superintendent Chris Hon and the entire Poplar Bluff team in their digital transformation with the highest quality digital resources and customized, effective professional development.”