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Cable franchises are up for renewal this year, and one Queens councilman wants to make sure customers receive better service before the City signs any new contracts.
“With the cable franchises for Cablevision and Time Warner up for renewal for the first time in 10 years, we must wisely use this opportunity to protect consumers and hold Big Cable to higher standards,” said Tony Avella (D-Bayside), the chair of zoning and franchises for the City.

In addition, the City is seeking bids from all possible companies that can offer services to every residence, and already it appears consumers may have another option. The Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) reached an agreement with Verizon Tuesday for a citywide cable television contract. The proposed agreement must still be approved by the City’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee, which is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the topic May 20.

Currently, the majority of City residents have just one cable television provider available to them. If the Verizon deal is approved, the company would have to provide cable service to all residences in the City, establishing a competitive market place. Verizon will have up to nine years to follow through on its agreement.

If the agreement is approved, Verizon will increase funding for all of the public, educational and governmental (PEG) channels and provide a $10 million capital grant to NYC TV in Brooklyn. The company must also enhance the City’s internal telecommunications systems through improvements to the fiber network and pay a franchise fee of five percent of the revenue generated in the City from its cable television services.

Upon reviewing the announcement released by DoITT, Avella said he liked the increase in PEG channels and the $10 million grant, but added he could not approve of the agreement without knowing the full extent of the contract.
“The devil’s in the details,” he said. “There needs to be more details flushed out than what’s available in the press release.”

Avella recently submitted a letter recommending changes he would like to see in the renewal contracts for both Time Warner, which services Queens and other parts of the City, and Cablevision, as well as any other new franchise that may be developed.

The City staged public hearings in each of the boroughs earlier this year to gain input on what customers of cable wanted. Avella said he attended each of those meetings and, as a result, witnessed repeated requests for service providers to be held to higher standards.

“It is absolutely essential that the public’s interest and rights be protected in the new contracts,” he said. “This is our one opportunity for the next 10-15 years.”

The credits from cable service providers for outages and failure to properly respond to a customer’s complaint efficiently are woefully inadequate, he said, and he wants to increase penalties to cable companies to prompt a more timely response.

Avella also wants cable companies to offer a low priced cable package for low-income families, print the rights of subscribers on every monthly bill and called on the franchises to increase resources and funding to meet the needs of the public access channels in the city.
“It is absolutely essential that the public’s interest and rights be protected in the new contracts,” he said.
“If we don’t get everything, we’ve lost a tremendous opportunity.”