The following letter was released by the Town of Carmel, New York, Cable Television Advisory Committee on July 10, 2018:
Town of Carmel, New York, Cable Television Advisory Committee
CarmelTelevisionAdvisory@gmail.com
Francis J. Monaco
Armanda Famiglietti
Gordon Lee Updegraff
Robert J. Schanil
Attorney: Joseph Charbonneau
Committee Liaison to the Town Board: Suzi McDonough
Mission: to provide advice to the Town Board on negotiations with Cable Television providers for the initial and renewal of Franchise Agreements.
Specifically, the current franchise agreement negotiations are for the renewal of the COMCAST Franchise Agreement, which is up for renewal in January, 2019.
Note that current Regulations restrict such Franchise agreements to delivery of “Cable Television” services, and DO NOT include Broadband (“Internet”) or Telephone services, which are often “bundled” with Cable Television for area customers.
The Cable Television Advisory Committee respectfully solicits input from current and past COMCAST customers in the Town of Carmel. Here are some of the issues already being discussed:
• Bring back a “presence” in the Town of Carmel for Customer Service (was moved to Danbury by COMCAST)
• Promoting the local Comcast public access TV studio via local publications and invite the public to view the studio to learn about the valuable free training and production opportunities.
• Improve the supervision and training of contracted studio coordinators or employ coordinators as is the practice of the majority of Comcast public access studios and was the practice at the Carmel studio until 2016
• Consider senior citizen, veteran and military discounts
• Better coordination with NYSEG and other utilities for removal of damaged transmission facilities
Thanks!
Frank Monaco and the Carmel Cable Television Advisory Committee