The Telecommunications Commission for Vancouver and Clark County continues its sluggish negotiations with Comcast over renewal of the company’s cable television franchise, with no clear ending date yet in sight.
The commission aims to present an update to the Vancouver City Council in mid-August, said Jim Demmon, the commission’s cable TV manager. The current contract, which gives Comcast non-exclusive rights to provide cable service in Clark County and Vancouver, expires at the end of this year. Last year, the commission had set an ambitious goal of completing franchise negotiations by the end of 2011.
The commission’s priority in negotiations is to maintain the current franchise fee of 5 percent of gross revenues that is now paid by Comcast to local governments. That fee generated $1.8 million for the city and $1.6 million for Clark County in 2011. The money goes to those governments’ general funds, but each jurisdiction contributes to a fund used to finance public, educational and government service programming, known as PEG channels.
Other priorities listed in a staff report to the Telecommunications Commission include:
• Maintaining an existing $1 per month residential subscriber fee for the PEG channels, with the ability to raise the fee after May 2014, based on “demonstrated need.”
