By Nate Leskovic
Times Staff
9/25/08

(previous)
Comcast is operating under the terms of the previous license and continues providing cable access. Under federal regulations, cable companies are required to provide or fund public access. They use a surcharge in customer’s bills.
But Comcast does not want to continue operating the public access system and its equipment continues to age. Its studio is in Weymouth.
“Comcast has been very cooperative,” said Lynch, “but nothing ever comes out of it. They always investigate, but just give generic answers.”
Town Administrator Kevin Mearn said he hopes the recent round of negotiations with Comcast will be successful. He said he expects a license to be signed in the next few months.
“Anything can happen, but they have been fruitful lately,” he said.
The town and Comcast have been close to an agreement in the past, according to Broadband Monitoring Committee Chair Jonathan Brown.
“Comcast has come forward with a couple alternative proposals,” said Brown, “but the proposals I’ve seen aren’t any better for the town than their previous ones. They haven’t really upped the stakes at all … They really are just playing a little bit of hardball. I don’t know why, really.”
Though he said he couldn’t be specific over the disagreements in the ongoing negotiations, Brown said it revolves over Comcast’s commitment to funding public access for the length of the license. He said the company wants the discretion to change in the future.
Comcast spokesperson Jim Hughes said he was unable to discuss specifics of the negotiations.
“We believe that we’re very close to agreement on (license) renewal terms that will ensure a smooth transition for the studio and include funding for the studio’s equipment needs and operations,” he said.
Brown suggests that negotiation problems could be due to tension that arose between the two parties after the town insisted Comcast wire the senior center for public access.
“Perhaps they look at how we handled ourselves back then and they’re not willing to enter an agreement with us where it opens them up, for the term of the license, to actually honor the license,” he said.
Brown adds that increased competition – currently from RCN and most likely Verizon in the next few years -– may also be influencing negotiations.
“They’re basically saying that no one in the town wants public access and it’s not a high priority to the residents,” he said. “We’re saying that we believe the citizens of Milton are interested and we want to turn it all around because it’s been handled very poorly … We’re not willing to make large sacrifices to force us to be in a position where all we can provide is the same old junk the town has been given for the past few years.”
Some residents created the nonprofit MPEG Access as a successor to Comcast’s public access operations and have a 10-year contract with Selectmen. Lynch said the nonprofit does not want to “step on anyone’s toes” and would wait until a license is signed with Comcast to get involved.
“We’d love to get up and running, even partially get running, but we don’t want to get in between the town and Comcast and take liberties that we don’t know if we can take.”
Brown suggests the town could begin staging the transition and said there is enough funding currently for the core components of a new system.
“There is a fairly good set of things we can do right away,” he said. “We can immediately take over playback and broadcast functionality. There is
not enough for a full studio, but I don’t think that’s what the town needs right now. The town needs clear broadcasts and there is funding available for that.”
When a license is finalized with Comcast, Selectmen will control how the cable access funding is spent. Lynch said MPEG needs this funding guaranteed.
“We do have enough money to buy equipment so we can have playback,” he said. “The only thing is, if we buy this equipment and then Selectmen decide not to give us any money, we can’t afford to pay someone to run it. We can’t afford to maintain it.”
Mearn said the contract with MPEG needs to be reevaluated by Selectmen once a license is finalized, since it was signed more than a year ago and contains language that is now outdated.
Lynch said MPEG is willing to negotiate a revision of its contract.