What to Include in a new Comcast Franchise Agreement

[jrm01]

My local community has begun negotiations with Comcast for a 10 year extension to the Franchise Agreement. I have been in contact with the lawyers involved and am trying to compose a letter to them requesting certain items. This is what I have so far. Any other suggestions?

1. They continue to provide a low cost basic tier (“lifeline”) that at a minimum contains all of the local broadcast channels. I believe that the FCC currently requires this, but I have heard rumblings that they may drop that requirement. It would be good to have it in the agreement for protection.

2. They continue to include the local digital channels (in digital form – QAM-256) for this basic tier. The FCC is vague as to whether this is required, although most providers include it. It would be beneficial to solidify the requirement. Basic Tier subscribers should be permitted to acquire cablecards from Comcast without a requirement to upgrade to a Digital Tier.

3. The local unscrambled, in-the-clear QAM channels should have complete PSIP information as provided by the local channel, including proper mapping to the OTA-equivalent channel number.

4. Comcast Customer Support should be required to properly support these in-the-clear QAM channels. Currently most of the CSRs will not even acknowledge their existence if questioned by a customer. The Comcast website support doesn’t identify them, nor explain what they are.

5. In areas where they are deploying ADS (analog-digital switching) Comcast customers with cablecards should have their cablecards mapped to the digital channel, not the analog channel. In some parts of the country Comcast is not doing this.

6. If a decision is made to implement SDV (switched digital video) customers should be given a six month notice before the change is made, and Comcast must provide a SDV adaptor for cablecard customers free of charge.

7. If a decision is made to convert to an all digital system customers should be given a six month notice and Comcast should provide a cablebox for analog only connections free of charge for one year.

[ah30k]

Good luck man! What if Comcast does not agree to your terms?

[cableguy763]

Is PA, like a lot of states, going to statewide franchises?

[jrm01]

Good luck man! What if Comcast does not agree to your terms?

There is no guarantee that they will consider them, but it can't hurt to try. This is the only opportunity to do so.

Last year, by way of a complaint to FCC and to Franchise Board I was able to get them to remap the in-the-clear QAM channels back to OTA-equivalent numbers. Thay had changed them to 79.2301 type numbers. It took 3 months of meetings.

[jrm01]

Is PA, like a lot of states, going to statewide franchises?

There have been proposals in state committees but nothing has come out of committee. Locally we have a group of municipalities that have banded together (12 townships) to negotiate these agreements. It was formed last year to negotiate with Verizon and will be used for this renewal with Comcast. The results from the consortium are not binding on each community and must be individually approved, but it was successful last year.

[vstone]

...
2. They continue to include the local digital channels (in digital form – QAM-256) for this basic tier. The FCC is vague as to whether this is required, although most providers include it. It would be beneficial to solidify the requirement. Basic Tier subscribers should be permitted to acquire cablecards from Comcast without a requirement to upgrade to a Digital Tier.
I presume that you are talking about subchannels. The must carry rules for analog apply to digital when the analog transmitter goes dark, but I don't think the FCC has ruled on carriage of other than the main channel. I am for this in principle, but, for instance, the local PAX (now 'i' network) digital channel carries not HD, but 4 SD channels, one of which is a west coast feed of another. I'm not willing to say that the FCC should mandate coverage of what are essentially SD cable channels.

Concering cablecards, I presume that you want this to make your Tivo work. I'm not sure that cable franchise authrorities should get involved in making a specific piece of equipment work. The basic service tier will not be encrypted. It would make more sense for the franchise authority to require that the basic service tier have easy to use numbers( 2.1 through 22.1, or whatever). This would help all those clear-QAM TV sets being sold.
4. Comcast Customer Support should be required to properly support these in-the-clear QAM channels. Currently most of the CSRs will not even acknowledge their existence if questioned by a customer. The Comcast website support doesn’t identify them, nor explain what they are.I would specify the existence of a channel guide for these channels.

6. If a decision is made to implement SDV (switched digital video) customers should be given a six month notice before the change is made, and Comcast must provide a SDV adaptor for cablecard customers free of charge.Federal laws require 30 days notice for channel changes. There are legal implications in trying overrule federal regulations. Good luck with that. How are cable companies going to satisfy this for a digital TV sets with a cablecard slot? Require a cable box. Again, this appears to be Tivo specific complaint.
7. If a decision is made to convert to an all digital system customers should be given a six month notice and Comcast should provide a cablebox for analog only connections free of charge for one year.The FCC has already provided regulations for analog support by cable systems through 2012. Good luck with going beyond that.

[wmcbrine]

Six months' notice seems excessive.

If I were in your position, I'd try for some real concessions -- things like price controls, and no encryption except on premiums. You probably won't be able to get what you really want, but perhaps you can get closer by asking for more.

[jrm01]

I presume that you are talking about subchannels. The must carry rules for analog apply to digital when the analog transmitter goes dark, but I don't think the FCC has ruled on carriage of other than the main channel. I am for this in principle, but, for instance, the local PAX (now 'i' network) digital channel carries not HD, but 4 SD channels, one of which is a west coast feed of another. I'm not willing to say that the FCC should mandate coverage of what are essentially SD cable channels.

While it may not be wise to have FCC require this, I believe it should be a matter for negotiation with the Franchise Authority.

Concering cablecards, I presume that you want this to make your Tivo work. I'm not sure that cable franchise authrorities should get involved in making a specific piece of equipment work. The basic service tier will not be encrypted. It would make more sense for the franchise authority to require that the basic service tier have easy to use numbers( 2.1 through 22.1, or whatever). This would help all those clear-QAM TV sets being sold.
I would specify the existence of a channel guide for these channels.

While I personnaly want this for TiVo it would also be applicable to cablecard media center devices and cablecard TVs.

By requiring them to maintain the OTA equivalent channel numbers the 2-1 format would be maintained.

Federal laws require 30 days notice for channel changes. There are legal implications in trying overrule federal regulations. Good luck with that. How are cable companies going to satisfy this for a digital TV sets with a cablecard slot? Require a cable box. Again, this appears to be Tivo specific complaint.

I'm not trying to overrule the 30 day channel change notice requirement, just trying to add a further level of notice for major delivery changes. Six months is probably excessive, but it's a good negotiating starting point.

The FCC has already provided regulations for analog support by cable systems through 2012. Good luck with going beyond that

Actually providers are exempt from this requirement if they chose to go all digital. I just want notice if this decision is made.

Thanks for your input. I'm hoping to get a variety of thoughts.

[d_anders]

1) For your community's sake I would make sure that your lawyers have previous and successful experience building strong franchise agreements. If they don't they should make sure they have some outside consulting council.

2) Talk to other cities that have gone through this in the last 1-5 years and ask what they would do differently if they could.

It's good to see that you're getting into the technical details on the cable service, so hopefully there are others like you in your group that are looking at how internet and telephone are provided over the cable are just as important to review.

3) Providing a mininum level of telephone and internet service would be good too. Lighter bandwidth services at a lower cost are important to offer for lower-income folks who really need more speed than just dialup. Asking Comcast to offer competitive internet lite and telephone solutions for $9.99-$19.99 each a month shouldn't be unreasonable...along the lines of the lower cost dsl solutions being offered by telco's.

I have to imagine there are also others in your community that can speak to the technical areas around internet and telephony.

5) One example is that there shouldn't be any bandwidth shaping (outside of the bandwidth speeds they have subscribed too) based on the type of internet device connected to one's home network or legal services that those devices are trying to utilize (i.e. video downloads). I would try to make sure that that door is left WIDE open.

This is more than the bittorent arguments. It's about the ability to fully utilize apple tv, tivo with unbox, xbox, the list goes on and on. People who pay $50-$60 a month for broadband should have a right to download with the performance they are paying for.... Setting reasonable expectations on total monthly GB or TB download limits for a given price level may be fair as long as it's clearly articulated to the customer in marketing materials, etc....then the customer/market decides.

[jrm01]

Dean,

Thanks for the input. Unfortunately the phone and internet side are regulated by state agencies in PA, and not included in the local Franchise Agreement. I have provided comments to state legislatures concerning some of these issues and think I'll follow up with them with some of your suggestions.

The attorney's who are handling this for us are outside counsel who have specialized in these agreements, so they are fairly knowledgeable. I sometimes find them too sympathetic to Comcast's stated "problems" but they seem to be pretty good. They handled the City of Pittsburgh the last two times and the Verizon negotiations for us last year.

[jrm01]

Six months' notice seems excessive.

If I were in your position, I'd try for some real concessions -- things like price controls, and no encryption except on premiums. You probably won't be able to get what you really want, but perhaps you can get closer by asking for more.

Six months is long, but remember this is only for major changes which usually take longer than that to plan for.

Pricing decisions were taken out of the hands of Franchise Authority many years ago

Requesting that they provide non-premiums un-encrypted would be nice, but probably fruitless. May include it though. Problem is that it would probably require them to provide filters (expensive) for tier distinctions.

[TexasGrillChef]

My local community has begun negotiations with Comcast for a 10 year extension to the Franchise Agreement. I have been in contact with the lawyers involved and am trying to compose a letter to them requesting certain items. This is what I have so far. Any other suggestions?

1. They continue to provide a low cost basic tier (“lifeline”) that at a minimum contains all of the local broadcast channels. I believe that the FCC currently requires this, but I have heard rumblings that they may drop that requirement. It would be good to have it in the agreement for protection.

2. They continue to include the local digital channels (in digital form – QAM-256) for this basic tier. The FCC is vague as to whether this is required, although most providers include it. It would be beneficial to solidify the requirement. Basic Tier subscribers should be permitted to acquire cablecards from Comcast without a requirement to upgrade to a Digital Tier.

3. The local unscrambled, in-the-clear QAM channels should have complete PSIP information as provided by the local channel, including proper mapping to the OTA-equivalent channel number.

4. Comcast Customer Support should be required to properly support these in-the-clear QAM channels. Currently most of the CSRs will not even acknowledge their existence if questioned by a customer. The Comcast website support doesn’t identify them, nor explain what they are.

5. In areas where they are deploying ADS (analog-digital switching) Comcast customers with cablecards should have their cablecards mapped to the digital channel, not the analog channel. In some parts of the country Comcast is not doing this.

6. If a decision is made to implement SDV (switched digital video) customers should be given a six month notice before the change is made, and Comcast must provide a SDV adaptor for cablecard customers free of charge.

7. If a decision is made to convert to an all digital system customers should be given a six month notice and Comcast should provide a cablebox for analog only connections free of charge for one year.

What about preventing comcast from enabling "COPY PROTECTION" and forcing comcast to leave "COPY PROTECTION" flags up to the Broadcaster/Channel and not to Comcast.

TGC

[jrm01]

What about preventing comcast from enabling "COPY PROTECTION" and forcing comcast to leave "COPY PROTECTION" flags up to the Broadcaster/Channel and not to Comcast.

TGC

Added already after my original post. Thanks for the reminder. That is one I hope we can insist on. "Retain the copy protection level for broadcast TV as set by the provider".

[GoHokies!]

I would try for a set farther and try to ensure that it's ensure that 0x00 on ALL CHANNELS (not just broadcast) unless specifically requested by the content provider. Comcast should have to make that written request from the provider available on request.