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Cable Franchise Renewal andChanging Technology
Sue Miller BuskeThe Buske Group
4808 T StreetSacramento, CA [email protected]
916-441-6277
Build an Educated Renewal Team Create Franchise Renewal Work Group Include community leaders, PEG leadership, and City staff
Brief Council on renewal basics, anticipated process, and timeline Initial and ongoing
Determine information needed Past Performance Future Needs & Interests
Determine ways to gather that information Research tools Use multiple information-gathering techniques
Outline for Success
Past Performance Review activities will include:
Franchise fee/financial review of cable operator
Franchise compliance review
Technical review of the cable system
Public Input gathered during needs assessment process
Preparing reports that document the findings
Past PerformanceCompliance Review
Needs Assessment activities to identify future community needs and interests may include: Focus group workshops (constituency-based) Telephone survey On-line survey(s) Stakeholder meetings/interviews Gathering strategic & communication plans Review of current PEG Access facilities & operations
Evaluate condition of equipment, facilities, services
Public hearing Reports that document the findings of all activities and make
recommendations
Needs Assessment Process
Ask questions in a clear and unbiased fashion
Ask questions that could yield helpful information for assessing future needs
It’s about more than just “I want lower cable rates”
Examine longitudinal trends if possible
Ask questions of both subscribers and nonsubscribers
You are assessing community needs and interests, not only current subscriber needs and interests
A Few Tips
Analysis of brainstorming and question in survey can identify troubling issues
For example, do people say they purchased a package for a specified price that wasn’t what they ended up getting?
What does this tell us about what should be included in the renewal franchise?
Interesting Findings
Subscribers and HD
59% of subscribers pay extra to receive an HD tier of service (average of responses to 9 recent on-line surveys)
About 1/3 of these HD subscribers said they rarely or never watch programs that are NOT delivered in HD
What does this tell us about what should be included in the renewal franchise?
Interesting Findings
Communities with PEG HD Channels (partial list) Portland, Oregon (Comcast) Gresham, Oregon (Comcast) St. Paul, Minnesota (Comcast) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Comcast) Vancouver, Washington (Comcast) Tacoma, Washington (Comcast) Manhattan, New York (Verizon, Time Warner, RCN) Brooklyn, New York (Verizon, Time Warner,
Cablevision) Bronx, New York (Verizon, Cablevision)
Key Franchise Provisions
Communities with PEG HD Channels (partial list) Barre, Cabot, Chelsea, Marshfield, and 8 other Vermont
cities/towns (Charter) Fairfax County, Virginia (Cox) Lexington, Massachusetts (RCN) Stoneham, Massachusetts (RCN) Newton, Massachusetts (RCN) Framingham, Massachusetts (RCN) Brookline, Massachusetts (RCN) Weston, Massachusetts (RCN) Waltham, Massachusetts (RCN)
Key Franchise Provisions
PEG Channels on Electronic Program Guide About 50% of subscribers indicated that the EPG is
their most frequently used source of information to decide what to watch on cable TV (average of responses to 5 recent telephone surveys)
Subscribers in these surveys reported that they used the EPG about 3 times as often as any other source to find cable TV programming information
What does this tell us about what should be included in the renewal franchise?
Interesting Findings
