AN ORDINANCE related to cable television; authorizing the Mayor or his designee to enter into a new Cable Television Franchise Agreement and an agreement regarding additional public benefits with Qwest Broadband Services, Inc. d/b/a CenturyLink; authorizing the Chief Technology Officer to enter into other agreements for the purpose of implementing or administering the new franchise; increasing appropriations in the 2015 budget of the Department of Information Technology for costs incurred in processing the franchise application; and transferring cash received for processing the franchise application; all by a 3/4 vote of the City Council.
The Report of the Public Safety, Civil Rights and Technology Committee Agenda Item 13 Council Bill 118411 related to cable television authorizing the mayor has designated enter into a new cable television franchise agreement and an agreement regarding additional public benefits with Quest Broadband Services Inc DBA CenturyLink authorizing the Chief Technology Officer to enter into other agreements for the purpose of implementing or administering the new franchise. Increasing appropriations in the 2015 Budget of the Department of Information Technology for costs incurred in processing the franchise application and transferring cash received for processing the franchise application all by a three quarter vote of the city council. The committee recommends the bill pass as amended. Thank you, Councilmember Harrell. Thank you very much. So this legislation basically grants a cable television franchise to Quest's broadband services, doing business as CenturyLink. And the last time a cable franchise was actually negotiated and executed is in 2006. In the term of this franchise is ten years. And so what should occur after this approval is CenturyLink will either build, overbuild and upgrade its network to close to 100,000 households or more. In Seattle, the city negotiated a franchise agreement that basically will bring about a new fiber broadband provider to the service to the city and receive substantial public benefits that will help the community. And let's talk a little about those public benefits. And I also want to acknowledge Mike, Matt, Matt Miller and your team for negotiating this deal as anticipated by the new cable code changes passed earlier this year, CenturyLink will again be another competitor in our market. They will mean we will maintain our franchise fee revenue that, you may recall, will be about 4.4% franchise fee on cable television, television revenue and about $0.12 per prescriber per month. And this is consistent with other income and providers. Now that's revenue we use for our technology matching funds. I talked about during the briefing making sure that underrepresented communities, seniors, other lower income individuals have access to technology. And so that's an incredible public benefit. We also this particular channel we're televised on as an example, Seattle Channel and other public educational and governmental programs are are paid for by this this income stream. And of course, we have a guarantee that discounted pricing will be for lower income households and seniors. During these many discussions we had during this legislation, we I'll just quote a portion of the code that says a significant portion of the total households to which a cable operator offers cable service shall be households that fall below the median income level as measured by a census block group. Data. And the reason why that's critical is we don't we do not want a provider coming in here in sort of cream skimming on certain affluent neighborhoods and neglecting our lower income neighborhoods. And we have asked the director to establish a rule to respond to the council's policy direction, to make sure that we we meet underrepresented communities. And as this rule develops, a definition has occurred in that a significant, significant portion, we are saying, is not less than 30% of the total households and the cable operator operators service area . So we're actually putting math behind our commitment to the lower income areas that we want to serve as we continue to examine the feasibility of a municipal broadband network and a lot of attention and discussions around that, we have been trying to pass legislation to change basically outdated rules and regulations to open up the market. To incentivize competition, which is great for the consumers. Better service, lower prices. Just by way of context, in 2012, you may remember that we passed legislation to open up our excess capacity of our own fiber optic cable network that provides high speed Internet services. In 2014, we made several changes to the historical administrative code, allowing making it easier for providers to enter the market and remove some of the historical barriers. And through that, we've been able to reach neighborhoods that we were not able to reach before. And then in 2015, we modernized the cable television franchise code, basically allowing more competition and eliminating the concept of franchised districts. We believe that that was an outdated method by which we do business, and this again, would encourage competition. So I think we're heading into to a good direction. Our policy is intact. I'm trying to make sure we serve all communities and realize the benefits of having this kind this this kind of competition for our consumers. The committee recommends passage of this ordinance. Thank you. Questions or comments? Please call the role on the passage of the bill. Lakota. Hi. Brian Okamoto. I. Rasmussen. I so want. I. Picture. Hi Gordon. I. Harrell. I am president Burgess nine in favor and and opposed. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Is there any other business to come before the council? Councilmember Lakota. Yes. Like be excused August 17th. Of August of July. I mean, July 17. I'm sorry. This is I think it's, um, we're looking at August. August 17. Yes. Okay. It's a second. All in favor of excusing Councilmember Lakota on August 17. Vote i. I. Opposed. Vote no. You have lots of friends. You almost always have me choosing a wrong date. I just want to make sure. Any other business. Thank you very much. We are adjourned.