The Champaign City Council convened Tuesday evening for a study session. Items on the agenda included the discussion of the city’s negotiations with Comcast Corporation.
The city has been negotiating with Comcast for the last four and a half years to write a franchise agreement.
City Manager Steve Carter said that a tentative agreement has been reached with Comcast and will be on the agenda for formal approval in the very near future.
The Franchise agreement entails a ten year contract which mandates a local Comcast office through December 2014, adherence to FCC technical standards and safety codes, and the availability of tornado warnings and emergency alerts to viewers.
A number of things that council members would have liked to have seen were not included in the franchise agreement. Council members wanted to have a Comcast office in Champaign for the ten years the contract would endure but Comcast has only committed to a local office for three years.
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The franchise agreement also does not include free cable service to local governments or private schools or discounts for senior citizens, nor the maintenance of PEG, or Public, Educational or Governmental channels in analog format. This means that Comcast may decide to make the University channel, UI-7, and the Parkland College channel, PCTV, convert to the digital format.
This means that those members of the public who watch these channels may not have access to them with regular cable programming. Comcast has not decided whether these channels will become part of digital programming, but the franchise agreement indicates that they would have the right to at any time.
A vote to set the Franchise agreement for later approval was defeated 6-1.
Council member-at-large, Deb Feinen said that she feels very strongly about the need to have a local Comcast office for the total ten years.
She also expressed concern over the fact that PEG channels may not be accessible to all viewers.
Marci Dodds, council member for District 4, said that she was willing to concede on the PEG channels but that the lack of a local office is unnerving.
Thomas Bruno, council member-at-large , said that Comcast’s commitment to the Champaign community has been very limited.
“They’ve never been willing to get involved with the economic development corporation; that would have gone a long way toward building public goodwill,” he said.
Bruno said he was not happy with the agreement.
“Tell us what you’ve done for the community, or take your wires down and go,” he said.
