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47 NSCC Item IV.A July 7, 2013 to: Commissioners from: Cor Wilson, Executive Director subject: Recommendation to Extend Cable Television Franchises Preparation of the Request for Renewal Proposal (RFRP) and associated documents has taken longer than anticipated, partly due to the time taken for rate order settlement discussions, responses to the Comcast appeal of the rate orders to the Federal Communications Commission, and our appeal of Comcast's effective competition petition to the FCC and partly due to the complexity of the documentation of the RFRP. As a result, we thought it prudent to discuss with Emmett Coleman whether the company would be willing to consider extension of the current franchises, and they were. Initially, we considered a six-month extension, primarily because the company and the City of St. Paul had prepared a franchise extension agreement for that length of time. However, Steve Guzzetta developed a timeline for the formal renewal process that included, at Comcast's request, up to four months for the company to respond to the RFRP and, according to the federal renewal regulations, up to four months for us to review and make a recommendation on the proposal, and it became clear that six months would be insufficient to complete the formal renewal process if we followed it all the way through. A copy of the timeline is attached for your information. In addition, each of the 10 cities would have to adopt a resolution or ordinance extending its franchise, and we did not want to have to go back to the cities again in six months. Emmett Coleman and his colleagues at Comcast agreed with our assessment and with our recommendation for a 12 -month extension of the franchises. They have reviewed the attached extension agreement, which will have to be adopted by each of the cities, and have deemed it acceptable. I want to emphasize that we still hope to conclude franchise renewal negotiations using the informal process well before the end of this extension. Action Requested: Motion to recommend that the member cities adopt the resolution extending the term of the cable television franchise ordinance and agreement held by Comcast of Minnesota, Inc.