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 attorney is working on a draft. There will be at least one more conference call. We hope to have an agreement in 30 days or less.
It remains to be seen how much longer franchise agreements like these will last. Just this month, California became the latest state to enact statewide cable TV franchises (joining Indiana, Kansas, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia), and lawmakers on Capitol Hill are still contemplating national franchise agreements.
I do not have cable TV, and outside of weekday Cardinal games I do not miss it.
I get the most basic of all basic cable packages. It’s $14 and change per month, and I get about 22 channels (channels 2 through 22 and 98 on Peoria’s Insight cable lineup). I, too, miss the weekday Cardinals games, but not much else. I could live without cable at all if I had to, although I would miss C-SPAN, and “Myth Busters” on Discovery.
Although I don’t watch much tv, when I do, it’s on the expanded cable and I’ll never give it up. Too much good stuff out there.
I’m something of a tv addict, I admit it. We have a satellite provider, DirecTV. They’re good. And they aren’t regulated like cable, so you can pick from a variety of providers I think. I get mail from Dish Network too.
It’s the TIVO though that makes my life so complete. Without my Tivo, I don’t think it would matter whether I had cable or satellite or nothing. If only I could show my appreciation to the Tivo people somehow. They seriously changed my life, for the better!