The Community Television Association of Maine is a nonprofit membership organization that serves the interests of public access television operations across the state.

CTAM can be an important resource for any Maine community interested in developing  a community television opportunity. CTAM offers at least four meetings a year with a formal workshop/training session as well as ample opportunity for informal exchanges of ideas and information.

Before CTAM was organized, there were no efficient means to "inventory" what kinds of community television Maine had to offer or which communities were working on franchising or re-franchising issues that affected their access provisions. Today, thanks to CTAM, we can identify dozens of P.E.G. access, local origination, leased access and nonprofit television operations statewide and dozens of professional, amateur, and volunteer staff members who are making it happen here in Maine.

Through our affiliation with the Maine Municipal Association, presentations at seminars for municipal officials, and through a constant exchange of ideas with members of the State Legislature, CTAM is working to educate our leaders about the benefits of local television and the importance of Media Education in their communities.

We also welcome that participation of our commercial and public broadcasting associates, the cable industry, and others who have an interest in community television. A non-voting membership is available for this purpose.

1. Public Access: Residents of a Community have access to equipment to produce a program to share with their neighbors over the local public access channel. Community television access channels may also feature programs produced by the schools and government programs (live coverage of council meetings etc.) These are called Educational access and Governmental access respectively. Ideally each of these functions - Public, Educational, and Governmental access - has it's own channel. In this way, the community knows where to look for different types of programming.

2. Local Origination: The cable company creates local programming largely developing the ideas for the programs and producing them with their own staff. The programs are shown on a local cable channel for subscribers of the community. Programming is supported by commercial advertising on these channels.

3. Leased Access: An individual, non-profit organization or business who leases a channel from the cable operator and provides community information. Programming is supported by commercial advertising on these channels.

4. Nonprofit Community Television: Over 65,000 homes in the greater Portland area are served by a unique nonprofit community television channel called TV4, 
The Community Television Network. Members include non-profit agencies, individuals and businesses who use the channel for education and outreach.

5. Broadcast Community Television: Community television programming that is televised over an FCC approved UHF broadcast channel by a non-profit organization. Channel operation may be commercial or non-commercial and is typically supported by underwriting or direct donations.

• There are over 300,000 homes in Maine which currently receive Community Television channels like those described above.
• Public, Educational, and Governmental cable channels are earmarked for use by the community under the terms of a franchise agreement with the cable company serving that area. Under Maine law, all franchises must include provisions for access to, and facilities to make use of, one or more local Public, Educational and Governmental access channels.