ricep5
Premium
join:2000-08-07
Jacksonville, FL
 ·Comcast Formerly ..
 ·AT&T CallVantage
 ·AT&T Southeast
| Something small...something big
Hitting up the big cable companies for civic dollars outside of what one would consider normal business for a cable TV company is what originally brought this on.
Local towns were abusing their franchise rights to get 'perks' set up and paid for by the cableco. Stories of local parks being built, new city tractors, even a farmer on a Georgia city council getting a load of free fertilizer, it was starting to get out of hand. (go google it)
Local Town USA was using franchising rules as their personal little speed zone and writing large tickets to anyone who wandered through. And naturally they all paid. |
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marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO
| said by ricep5  :a farmer on a Georgia city council getting a load of free fertilizer, it was starting to get out of hand. (go google it) Do you have some suggested searches?
I could not find the story after several different searches.
I've actually been through a franchise negotiation, and it is very easy for a cable company to get a franchise through if they want to force it. Stopping a franchise is difficult to impossible. The time requirements the FCC has imposed take out the one major barrier from a city, which is dragging out informal negotiations with the threat of the cost of formal negotiations. Now a company can just bite the bullet and jump into formal negotiations and force a 90-day timeline and completely skip informal negotiations.
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