WPCNR Common Council Chronicle-Examiner By John F. Bailey. March 26, 2007 : Upon examination of the proposed cable television franchise agreement released Friday, it has become clear that the maximum amount of technical assistance Verizon will pay the White Plains Public Access Students over the life of their 15 year agreement is $250,000 scheduled to be paid in the first three years of the 15-year life of the proposed deal.
Corporation Counsel Edward Dunphy announced an agreement 25 months in the making Thursday evening in which Verizon will pay White Plains $1 a month for each subscriber signed up by Verizon, and 5% of gross revenues Verizon earns each year. (The 5% of gross revenues is the maximum allowed by New York State, the White Plains legal department said.) According to city sources, White Plains currently receives approximately $700,000 in revenues from Cablevision, the current sole franchise for cable television in White Plains (which works out roughly to over $14 Million in revenues.
WPCNR has found no provision in the agreement in which the city facilities can receive future Verizon payments for future historic technical upgrades in case a revolutionary transmission process requires a facility upgrade. WPCNR has placed a call to the White Plains Law Department to see if the agreement protects the city agains technology obsolescence. So far the Law Department has not responded.
The Council set a public hearing for April 4 to present the deal, and will hold a second hearing if necessary, approximately mid-April. The next step assuming the deal is approved will be approval by the Public Service Commission approximately two months after the deal is approved by the Common Council.
Verizon Charges Presented Thursday Evening
Verizon’s Scott Parr, a consultant who hammered out the deal with the city, said Verizon expected to bring lower cable prices through its fiber optic network, offering telephone, FiOS-TV and high speed broadband internet on the same wire system. He said there would be no charge for initial hook up for multiple television sets, only charges for boxes per month. He said Verizon expected to offer the basic package of cable, phone, and broadband for $100 a month. Cablevision’s Optimum service now charges the CitizeNetReporter $46 for basic cable, $45 for Optimum Broadband $35 for Optimum Voice (telephone), a total of $126 a month.
Mr. Dunphy said the cable operation in White Plains would receive $150,000 this year, and $50,000 a year for the next 2 years of the contract which would be dedicated to the Public Access Television operation, which is presently budgeted for $546,825 for the 07-08 year, according to a budget presented at a meeting of the Cable Television Commission recently.
Dunphy said that the subscriber revenues of $1 a subscriber a month (example: 20,000 subscribers would give White Plains $20,000 a month), and the 5% of gross revenues would be absorbed into the city’s general fund, the use, apparently at the city’s discretion. These are essentially the same terms of the Cablevision contract signed a decade ago.
Verizon Progess
Parr said Verizon had installed fiber optic cable to all single family residents in the city (which account for 45% of residences in White Plains, and all multiple residences dwelling units (accounting for 50% of the city’s housing) which merely await the landlord’s o.k. to hook up to the buildings. Parr said that the competion between Verizon and Cablevision would hopefully encourage more cable customers to purchase more services, thus adding to city revenues over and above the monopoly that Cablevision enjoys now in the city.
The agreement is expected to set the tone, in negotiation an new long-term agreement with Cablevision. The city has been operating without a contract with cablevision since it expired in 2005.
Councilman Benjamin Boykin said he felt the franchise agreement should call for an increase in the monthly fee of $1 per subscriber to reflect inflation over fifteen years. Dunphy said White Plains and Verizon had been unable to agree on an inflation formula to protect the city over the length of the contract.
Jim Kenny the Executive Director of White Plains Public Access said he already had a number of equipment upgrades in mind for the public access studios.
