CHAMPAIGN – The city council is expected Tuesday to hire a Minneapolis firm to help Champaign and Urbana negotiate new cable television franchise agreements with Insight Communications.

The Champaign council will consider a proposed $139,000 contract with cable consultant Moss & Barnett and authorize an agreement with Urbana to split the costs on a two-thirds (Champaign), one-third (Urbana) basis.

The council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Champaign City Building, 102 N. Neil St.

The Urbana council will consider the agreement with Champaign at its meeting Monday at 7 p.m. at the Urbana City Building, 400 S. Vine St.

The current 15-year cable franchise agreement with Insight Communications expires on Feb. 28, 2009. Insight petitioned the cities for franchise renewal this past June. Negotiations typically take about two years.

Moss & Barnett was selected over two other firms in part because it was the only firm that has previously negotiated a franchise agreement with Insight Communications, said Jeff Hamilton, a telecommunications employee with the city of Champaign.

Part of the services to be provided by Moss & Barnett will be a "community needs assessment" to help the cities determine exactly what services to ask for in negotiations, he said.

"They'll be doing a telephone survey of the public to find out what services the community wants," Hamilton said. "There will also be public hearings and forums."

One idea that will be explored is whether to ask for a channel devoted exclusively to public-access programming.

"Some members of the community have requested a dedicated public access channel, and that request is supported by the Champaign-Urbana Cable Commission," Hamilton said.

Insight Communications officials could not be reached for comment Friday.

Up to an additional $17,500 would go to Moss & Burnett if AT&T or another company seeks approval to use city right-of-way to provide video services to residents via telephone line.

Under a Dec. 20 order by the Federal Communications Commission, a local franchising authority like the cities would have only 90 days to decide whether to grant or deny a competitive cable franchise, such as AT&T's Project Lightspeed.

Hamilton said the text of the order hasn't been released yet, but that the cities would rely on Moss & Burnett for advice on how the order could affect the cities.

The Champaign council declined on Nov. 21 to negotiate a video services agreement with AT&T because the company refused to comply with the requirements of the city's cable television ordinance, which require a company seeking a franchise to provide service to all areas of the city.

Mark Blakeman, regional vice president of external affairs for AT&T, said requiring a complete build out is "an economic model that simply doesn't work."

"AT&T isn't seeking agreements in communities requiring 100 percent build-outs of Internet protocol television networks," Blakeman said. "Unfortunately, the consumers and residents of Champaign suffer."

Cable rates drop between 15 percent and 42 percent when a telephone company begins providing video services in a community, he said.

Legislation was introduced in the Illinois House last week to allow for a statewide franchise for telephone companies providing video services, Blakeman said. House Bill 1500 was introduced by state Rep. Jim Brosnahan, D-Evergreen Park, to allow phone companies to offer such services anywhere in the state after they secure a state franchise, with individual municipal approval. Brosnahan is the chairman of the Illinois House Telecommunications Committee.


The News-Gazette.com: Firm to be hired to handle cable franchising deal