The Seattle City Council’s Governance and Utilities Committee chaired by District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth is expected to vote Thursday on a proposed seven-year extension of Seattle’s deal with Comcast that allows the company to use city right of way to serve cable and internet customers.
The proposed extension agreement includes a bump in fees including raising “the existing cable franchise fee rate of 4.4% of the gross revenues of Comcast’s cable services to 5.0% of the gross revenues of Comcast’s cable services, which is the maximum allowed by federal law.”
Over the proposed seven-year extension of the deal, franchise fee revenues are estimated to total $29,334,798, according to the city. Other fee elements would add another $2.4 million.
The original 4.4% agreement was forged during 2015 negotiations led by then-Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell. Harrell also touted public benefits in the contract including 600 free “cable modem Internet connections” to non-profit organizations, $8 million to support public, education, and government television cable channels, including the Seattle Channel, $2 million in cable television service to government and school facilities, and discounted basic cable television service for low-income households.
Many have contended over the years that Comcast wasn’t giving enough or living up to its end of the deal when it comes to service. In addition to the increased fees, the proposed extension would also come with extensions of the public benefits to be weighed by Hollingsworth and her committee:
The city says Comcast has also agreed to continue to provide free cable modem service to qualified non-profit and community organizations.
An additional agreement is set to address “grounding and bonding deficiencies” at apartment buildings that were identified during a recent technical review.
Finally, the agreement includes an agreement for the City Council to work on legislation to “address a provision of the cable code” to allow Comcast to change the dates of its billing cycle.
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