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 the only things the city wants are to have Insight broadcast the city council meetings for free, which would save the city about $32,000 annually, and to have a shorter term for the agreement.  I’m going to guess that the $32,000 is not the sticking point, but that the cable company wants a longer agreement.  I seem to remember (and I could be remembering this incorrectly) Ray saying that he wanted the new agreement to be for only five years.  If that’s the case, that would be a disincentive for a cable company to invest a lot in infrastructure; I could see how it would hold up negotiations.

And Insight is not shy about holding up negotiations.  In Decatur, their franchise agreement has been expired for three years and they’re still negotiating a new one.  Let’s hope it’s not that bad in Peoria, and that the short three-month extension is a signal that both parties are hoping to come to agreement soon.