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Good news! At a special meeting on July 11, the North Suburban <br />Communications Commission accepted a recommendation of the Franchise <br />Renewal Committee to recommend a one -year extension of the cable franchises <br />to our member cities. Because of the complexity of the franchise renewal process <br />and negotiations, franchise extensions are common. <br />Although our cities' cable franchises currently expire in October and <br />November 2013, preparation of the Request for Renewal Proposal (RFRP) and <br />associated documents has taken longer than anticipated, and the renewal <br />proposal will likely not be sent to Comcast until later in July or early August <br />Initially, we considered a six -month extension; however, when we <br />developed a timeline for the formal renewal process that included, at <br />Comcast's request, up to four months for the company to respond to the RFRP <br />and, according to the federal renewal regulations, up to four months for us to <br />review and make a recommendation on the proposal, it became clear that six <br />months would be insufficient to complete the formal renewal process if we <br />followed it all the way through. In addition, each of the 10 cities have to adopt <br />a resolution or ordinance extending its franchise, and we did not want to have <br />to go back to the cities again in six months. <br />Comcast agreed with our assessment and with our recommendation for a <br />12 -month extension of the franchises. They reviewed the extension agreement <br />which the cities will adopt and have deemed it acceptable, and we are now <br />working with the city staff to get the agreement on their council agendas. In <br />the meantime, we are still hopeful that we will be able to conclude franchise <br />renewal negotiations using the informal process well before the end of this <br />extension. <br />1 <br />