06-11-2014 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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May 23, 2014 Page 3 Formal franchise renewal exhaustive description of events. The record of the NSCC contains a long history of missteps. Comcast has lodged its objections along the way, whenever it can discern what the NSCC is up to. Each of the member cities should ask to see the full record of communications between the NSCC and Comcast, including Comcast's formal and informal proposals. (Comcast is submitting a copy of the public version of its formal proposal under separate cover to each member city's administrator or manager.) If any member city or its attorney has any questions before the councils of the member cities decide whether to follow the recommendation of the NSCC, Comcast would be happy to try to answer those questions. Comcast has already requested an opportunity to speak before the city councils vote on this issue. I. Background A. Cable -television franchise renewal under the Cable Act A number of laws and regulations govern the renewal of cable - television franchises, but the primary framework for the renewal process is established by Section 626 of Title VI of the Federal Communications Act of 1934, as amended. (See 47 U.S.C. 6 546). The informal process. Nearly all franchise renewals are handled informally between the cable operator and the local franchise authority (LEA). In an informal process, the cable operator and 1.2A simply negotiate a franchise agreement without the burdensome litigation procedures and deadlines that characterize the formal process. Comcast's efforts to negotiate franchise renewal informally with the NSCC have so far been unsuccessful, due primarily to the fact that Comcast will not accede to the NSCC's demand to pay the NSCC for PPG operating support for the entire term of the renewed franchise. In informal negotiations, Comcast has proposed PEG operating support for a transitional period to allow the NSCC/NSAC to find other sources of funds to support its operating expenses. The forme.t/ mews. The formal process is quite different—and that's what the NSCC has chosen to focus an inordinate amount of time and money on. (The NSCC has sometimes tried to say that Comcast began the formal proceedings, but Comcast merely sent a letter years ago notifying the member cities that it intended to renew the franchises, as it was required to do, and the NSCC's own many resolutions repeatedly acknowledge that "the Commission [itself] adopted Resolution No. 2011-02 rorrnencing formal franchise renewal proceedings") The federal statutes governing the formal -renewal method are designed—as the United States House of Representatives explained in its