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When the Cable and Video Competition Law passed in Illinois, I expressed some concern over what it would mean for Peoria. You may recall that the Act states: …if the holder [of a state franchise agreement] is an incumbent cable operator or any successor-in-interest company, it shall be obligated to provide access to cable [...] On June 30, Gov. Blagojevich signed Senate Bill 678 into law. Included in that bill are two acts that impact cable television: “The Cable and Video Competition Law of 2007″ and “The Cable and Video Customer Protection Law.” This bill that passed is far superior to House Bill 1500, on which I commented back [...] Since April 2006, the City of Peoria and Insight Communications have been operating without a franchise agreement. The old 20-year agreement expired last year and negotiations for a new agreement have been going on ever since. The City isn’t saying what the holdup is, although it could be any number of things, including state [...] On April 15, 2006, Peoria’s 20-year cable franchise agreement with Insight Communications expired. As of today, we still have no cable franchise agreement, but City Attorney Randy Ray is hopeful that we will soon. In an e-mail I received in response to my question on how negotiations were going, he said this: Our attorney [...] Insight Communications’ cable franchise agreement with the City of Peoria expired six months ago, but renewal of the cable operator’s franchise has yet to be signed. I asked City attorney Randy Ray on Monday (10/23) what the status was, and he had this to say: We have just completed 3 lengthy conference calls. Our [...] Have you seen a commercial like this one lately? In this ad, which I got online, it lists Tennessee senators, but I’ve seen this same ad locally (frequently) with Illinois senators listed. It leaves you with the impression that some nefarious “special interests” are sabotaging a chance to lower our cable bills [...] Peoria is in the process of renewing a franchise agreement with Insight Communications. The city has been through this twice before (for a history of cable franchise agreements in Peoria, see my previous post on the topic), so you’d think this is pretty mundane stuff. Not so. You may surprised to learn that franchise [...] The 20-year cable franchise agreement the City of Peoria has with Insight Communications is set to expire April 15, but the city is offering to extend it until July 15, according to Randy Ray, corporation counsel for the city. Ray didn’t explain further, so the rest of this post is pure speculation. It appears [...] I decided to go straight to the source and ask City Attorney Randy Ray what the status is of the cable franchise agreement. He was kind enough to write me back this evening: We have a meeting scheduled with Insight next week. We hope to have an agreement by April 15. Our biggest local [...] I wonder what the status is of the city’s negotiations with Insight Communications for a new cable franchise agreement. Last June, the City hired the Varnum Riddering firm from Grand Rapids, Michigan, to help them negotiate a new agreement. The current agreement expires on April 15. It looks like these negotiations are not exactly [...] |
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