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May 29. 2012 11:08PM
Hooksett seeks members for cable TV panel
HOOKSETT — With the end of the cable franchise agreement between the town and Comcast set to expire Dec. 15, the town is seeking members for a cable TV citizen’s advisory committee.
The committee will be able to provide input in the negotiations of a new agreement.
The current agreement began in December 2004, and town administrator Dean Shankle said, in general, he has not received much negative feedback about the services.
One item he said he had received a complaint about was that channels could be tiered differently. He said the resident would have liked to have seen channels that share common topics in the same tiered setup.
Other concerns have stemmed from cost in general.
Shankle said he was unsure of how much negotiation will be able to occur within those topics, but said they will likely be brought up during the talks.
A similar committee had been formed when the current agreement was being worked on, and Shankle said members of that committee have been contacted to see if they would be interested in working on the negotiations again.
“We’re seeing if those folks want to be on it again, because they put a lot of work into that,” Shankle said.
Once an agreement is drawn up with Comcast, Shankle said it would go to town council for approval. Because the agreement expires in December, Shankle said he would like to see an agreement before the council by October to have enough to time to discuss it accordingly.
Two other items that can be negotiated are the franchise fee, which what percentage of the franchisee’s gross annual revenue is paid to the town. Currently, that stands at three percent and is paid quarterly. That percentage however, only comes from revenue generated by cable television and not any telephone or Internet service.
Shankle said that public, educational or governmental or PEG access channels can also be negotiated. Hooksett has not, however, utilized PEG access channels, and Shankle said he does not expect that to be a concern.
“You can negotiate how many channels when you can use them,” Shankle said. “Since they don’t do PEG access, it’s not an issue.”
Shankle said anyone with concerns about the franchise agreement can contact him or town council member Nancy Comai.
The committee will be able to provide input in the negotiations of a new agreement.
The current agreement began in December 2004, and town administrator Dean Shankle said, in general, he has not received much negative feedback about the services.
One item he said he had received a complaint about was that channels could be tiered differently. He said the resident would have liked to have seen channels that share common topics in the same tiered setup.
Other concerns have stemmed from cost in general.
Shankle said he was unsure of how much negotiation will be able to occur within those topics, but said they will likely be brought up during the talks.
A similar committee had been formed when the current agreement was being worked on, and Shankle said members of that committee have been contacted to see if they would be interested in working on the negotiations again.
“We’re seeing if those folks want to be on it again, because they put a lot of work into that,” Shankle said.
Once an agreement is drawn up with Comcast, Shankle said it would go to town council for approval. Because the agreement expires in December, Shankle said he would like to see an agreement before the council by October to have enough to time to discuss it accordingly.
Two other items that can be negotiated are the franchise fee, which what percentage of the franchisee’s gross annual revenue is paid to the town. Currently, that stands at three percent and is paid quarterly. That percentage however, only comes from revenue generated by cable television and not any telephone or Internet service.
Shankle said that public, educational or governmental or PEG access channels can also be negotiated. Hooksett has not, however, utilized PEG access channels, and Shankle said he does not expect that to be a concern.
“You can negotiate how many channels when you can use them,” Shankle said. “Since they don’t do PEG access, it’s not an issue.”
Shankle said anyone with concerns about the franchise agreement can contact him or town council member Nancy Comai.
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