The Newcastle Board of Selectmen unanimously agreed to a 10-year contract with Time Warner Cable at a Sept. 26 meeting.
The franchise fee – the amount Time Warner Cable pays the town – will remain at three percent of subscriber billings. Time Warner will also provide the town with two grants – $15,000 to Lincoln Academy and $5000 to the town – for the purchase of video recording equipment.
Time Warner passes on the franchise fees and the cost of the grants to customers. As a result, customers will continue to pay a $2.10 franchise fee on a $70 cable bill and, now, an additional $0.40 to repay the grant.
The selectmen didn’t ratify the contract without continuing to voice their displeasure with various facets of Time Warner’s operations.
“It’s second-rate service at the same price,” Selectwoman Ellen Dickens said.
Newcastle customers don’t receive multiple services the company advertises, including computer-DVR connectivity, On Demand features and telephone service, Dickens said.
Shelley Winchenbach, director of government relations for Time Warner Cable, said until “we change over all the equipment” remaining since the company’s acquisition of Adelphia, the services in question will remain unavailable.
“It’s going to take some time to be able to do that,” Winchenbach said.
Time Warner Cable acquired Adelphia in 2006.
Dickens expressed doubt about the company’s commitment to providing a full range of services.
“There’s no incentive,” Dickens said. “They don’t care. They don’t have to.”
Dickens also objected to the corporation’s unwillingness to provide the franchise fees and grants in exchange for the contract, without directly passing on the expense to customers.
“You refuse to fund this in any way, shape or form as a public service,” Dickens said.
“You’re correct,” Winchenbach said. “We pass it on to the customers.”
Winchenbach expressed concern, at one point, about the $0.40 monthly increase driving subscribers away, instead encouraging the selectmen to pass a 15-year contract, cutting the cost to subscribers by $0.13 per month.
“You can actually make [yourself] more competitive by actually funding [the grant] and not passing it through to your customers,” Dickens said.
Winchenbach did bring encouraging news for a Newcastle resident distraught over the loss of C-SPAN as part of her basic cable package. The resident, Lynn Norris, expressed her disappointment at a Sept. 12 meeting and wasn’t in attendance Sept. 26.
If Norris gets a digital TV adapter, provided by Time Warner Cable at no additional cost for the first two years, “she will be able to get that channel back,” Winchenbach said.
After two years, Time Warner Cable will rent the adapters to customers for $0.99 per month.
