AMHERST – An impasse between the town’s Cable Advisory Committee and Comcast over the terms of a new 10-year license is prompting the Select Board to get involved in the negotiations.
With the current contract signed in 2006 set to expire Oct. 15, the Select Board on Monday opted against approving or rejecting Comcast’s offer, which includes providing $1.125 million in capital funds for equipment. While that is more than now provided, it is less than the town requested.
The board instead wants two of its members to join Town Manager Paul Bockelman and Peter Epstein, the attorney representing the town, in face-to-face negotiations with the cable company next week.
“They are requesting one more negotiation session with Comcast with the Select Board involved and members of the Cable Advisory Committee not involved, with the hope there will be more movement from Comcast,” Bockelman said.
Bockelman said the meeting should happen next week, with a deal to be hammered out by Oct. 13.
The current proposal from Comcast, which comes after several months of negotiations and hearings to determine what subscribers want from their cable service, is endorsed by Bockelman.
“It’s not everything the town wanted, but it seems to be a reasonable compromise, and negotiations are about compromise,” Bockelman said.
In August, Peter Hechenbleikner, the town’s interim town manager during the summer, also recommended that the Select Board accept the Comcast deal.
In a Sept. 21 memo to the Select Board, Bockelman wrote, “I believe this agreement is a significant increase for the town and is in the best interest of Amherst cable television subscribers.”
Bockelman added that to improve the deal, the board would need to pursue more regulatory and legal processes, which would result in added legal fees.
In addition to the capital funding, which would more than double the $450,000 included in the current deal, the town would receive 5 percent of gross annual revenues to support the public, educational and governmental (PEG) channels, an agreement that the town would be able to continue using the i-net, or institutional network, for three years.
I-net is a fiber network that allows live broadcasting by Amherst Media, and carries the town phone system, email and security camera feeds.
The town is also seeking an agreement from Comcast that it would keep a customer service office would be in Amherst or an adjacent community.
But the Cable Advisory Committee, and representatives from Amherst Media, have disagreed that the Comcast offer is a good deal for the town. While they backed off an initial capital request of $2.205 million, reducing that to $1.663 million, both the committee and Amherst Media have issues with not having PEG channels broadcast in high definition.
Amherst Media has said that it does not get at least $1.663 million in capital funding, it would be forced to continue using antiquated equipment and more locations for live broadcasting would not be possible.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
