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 and federal legislation designed to take local franchising authority away from home-rule communities like Peoria.
In the middle of all that, the news has been released that Comcast will be taking over Insight’s cable systems in Illinois, including Peoria. So what does that mean for Peoria’s on-going struggle to nail down a new franchise agreement?
City attorney Randy Ray had this to say: “There is a procedure whereby the City approves the transaction. Hopefully we can use that as leverage and get an agreement.” He didn’t elaborate on what the “procedure” is.
My experience with Comcast is much more positive than with Insight. You can expect a pacakge structure change. I think for the better. I hate the way Insight structures their packages.