December 7, 2016 Dear Commissioner The next Telecommunications Commission meeting is Wednesday, December 14 at 7 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers, and will be carried live on Civic TV channel 17. I have requested information from other communities about partnering in a franchise fee audit of Comcast and if they have customer service ordinances more stringent than the FCC standards. I have received no affirmative answers yet, but possibly there will be more responses before the meeting. If you can t attend the meeting, please let me know. Documents in this packet include: Agenda for 12/14/16 2016 Work Plan with summaries 2017 Proposed Work Plan and meeting dates Minutes: 10/26/16 Comcast complaints logged by City staff CenturyLink complaints logged by City staff: none Memo re: Franchise Fee Audits Comcast letter 11/7/16 re: Netflix on X1 boxes Comcast letter 11/14/16 re: customer experience Comcast letter 11/14/16 re: FYI and Viceland Comcast letter 11/17/16 re: KTCA kids Comcast letter 11/21/16 re: Impact network Comcast letter 11/28/16 re: Sling network on X1 Comcast letter 11/29/16 re: Fox College Sports networks Comcast letter 12/1/16 re: underground construction season ends If you have any questions, please call me at 952-924-2660. Very truly yours, Reg Dunlap
Agenda St. Louis Park Telecommunications Advisory Commission Meeting of December 14, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. City Council Chambers 1. Call to order 2. Roll Call 3. Approval of Minutes A. Telecommunications Commission minutes: October 26, 2016 4. Adoption of Agenda 5. Public Comment 6. Reports & Discussion A. Council Chambers remodeling B. Consider franchise fee review for Comcast: 2014-2016 C. Draft Annual Report for 2016 D. Draft Work Plan for 2017 & set meeting schedule for 2017 E. Elect Chair & Vice Chair, effective next meeting 7. Communications from the Chair, Commissioners and City staff 8. Adjournment Auxiliary aids for individuals with disabilities are available upon request. To make arrangements, please call the Cable TV Department at 952/924-2660 (TDD 952/924-2518) at least 96 hours in advance of meeting.
2016 Telecommunications Advisory Commission Work Plan January: Written Annual Report to City Council February 22: Meeting with Council at Rec Center Banquet Room. Bruce Browning gave the report, and Commissioners Dale Hartman, Cindy Hoffman and Rolf Peterson also attended. February 24: Cable TV technology presentation, including fiber optic technology A video explained How Stuff Works: Fiber Optic Cable. Mr. Dunlap said the Comcast cable system is called HFC, for Hybrid Fiber Coax. They use fiber around town to bring the signal to a neighborhood node, which was 400-500 homes when the system was built. The Commission toured the Comcast Roseville head end in the past and can have further discussion about transmission technologies at a meeting at the CenturyLink head end facility in Golden Valley. CenturyLink s system is different, called IP (Internet Protocol) video. All of the information Comcast sends is available at all times to their cable box, whereas with CenturyLink, you get one stream at a time, which is why they can offer video using smaller bandwidth to the home. Park TV marketing, publicity & program report for 2015 Mr. Dunlap summarized the memo. Channel 14 is educational access and ran a total of 135 new programs in 2015. ParkTV staff produced over 100 shows for Community TV channel 15. Channel 16 is the on location channel, with the majority of program being sporting events and concerts. Channel 17 is the civic channel with 75% of program hours being meetings. Channel 96 is the second community TV channel, and 82% of the programs were performances. Each of the channels is streamed live on the Internet and most shows are available on YouTube. Brainstormed future topics for Commission action, based on discussion at the Council Study Session February 22 Commissioner Browning gave the summary of the Commission s activities in 2015 at the Council s recent Study Session. He talked mostly about CenturyLink. April 6: Park TV Producer and Volunteer Recognition Event There was a great turnout of about 50 honorees; Commissioner Hoffman attended. May 11: Review Comcast complaints and first quarter complaint log Staff reports 27 complaints so far, which projects to 108 for the year, which would be an improvement over 130 received in 2014 and 126 received in 2015. Staff prepared a list of Commission options, which included monitoring, requesting call center records for St. Louis Park, providing notice to Comcast that the City intends to enforce FCC customer service standards, or directing staff to review other cities to see if they have customer service ordinances. Commissioner Keeler said that 97 complaint calls for Comcast out of 13,000 customers was a rate of point seven percent. Comcast price increase June 1 for select TV & internet services
Commissioner Keeler said that rate regulation went away as a result of the FCC ruling on Effective Competition last fall. The $3 increase in the Broadcast TV fee applies to all Basic cable customers. Most customers will also have to pay an additional $2 for the Regional Sports fee, so that s a $5 increase between those two fees. Mr. Dunlap said that the new price information is now listed on the City s web site and demonstrated how to find it, at parktv.org. Comcast HD enhancements and set-top box exchanges Customers with an old Comcast converter box may see a message that says, please call this number or some of your HD channels may go away. Some of these boxes need to be replaced because they use the older MPEG2 compression system which Comcast is replacing with MPEG4. He said if customers see that message they should act soon or they ll lose some HD channels, and that they can bring the box to the Excelsior Boulevard office to get a new one. That office is open seven days per week, and there is no fee to switch equipment. Review staff report on CenturyLink first quarter (establish baseline of possible Prism customers, set the standard for 15% additional buildout) Mr. Dunlap said that 30% of St. Louis Park living units can receive CenturyLink s Prism TV service, and 74% can receive internet speeds fast enough to receive TV service after CenturyLink does some additional work. CenturyLink has nine times as many customers as they did at the beginning of the quarter so they are beginning to have some market success. Also, they have data to prove that they are not just cherry picking in the most expensive neighborhoods, that a significant portion of their households served earn less than the median income in the City. Mr. Dunlap said the encoders have been installed to allow ParkTV channels to be seen in CenturyLink households. By late July or early August, new equipment will be installed in the control room to allow three ParkTV channels to be seen in HD glory, which will be very nice for the high school sports when they return in the fall. Chair Peterson said that two neighborhoods in St. Louis Park are capable of fiber to the home, and he looked to see if there were any houses for sale in those neighborhoods because it was a dream of his to have fiber to the home. City Council strategic goals and role for Telecommunications Advisory Commission Jacque Larson reviewed the goals and highlighted several that the Council would like the Commission to address: researching strategic options, supporting public and private schools and community education initiatives, and using broadband to improve quality of life. July 27: Tour of CenturyLink facility with Patrick Haggerty, CenturyLink Director of State Regulatory and Legislative Affairs; Mike Janssen, Lead Engineer, Forrestt Crowe, IPTV Engineer, and Jerry Jerome, Technician. Mr. Janssen showed the equipment racks for Prism TV and described I.P. (internet protocol) TV operations. In a monitoring room, the Commission saw the HD channels for Bloomington, Edina and Minneapolis. In another room, the Commission saw a fiber splicing demonstration. October 26: 2
Review staff report on CenturyLink second & third quarter CenturyLink now reaches 28,000 living units in St. Louis Park, and 10,000 of them can receive Prism TV. They have about 600 customers in St. Louis Park and paid $2,770 in franchise fees in the second quarter. Comcast complaint review & possible action After significant discussion, the consensus was to continue to monitor complaints quarterly, and to survey to see if other communities have customer service ordinances more stringent than the FCC customer service standards. Begin discussion of franchise fee review for Comcast: 2014-2016 The Commission passed a motion that staff should contact other cities to find out if they could partner in an audit to cut costs, and find out if the City Attorney would approve of a negotiated settlement without an audit. Update from Comcast on channel guide information available to customers with digital adapters, and using ParkTV branding Karly Werner from Comcast said this was a mistake that could be corrected and that she d follow up with the information for City staff to contact the third party vendor. Conflict of interest reminder, as requested by the City Council Tour control room & new HD servers & Carousels December 14 Council Chambers remodeling in 2017 Decision about franchise fee review for Comcast 2014-2016 Draft Annual Report for 2016 Set meetings for 2017 Draft Work Plan for 2017 Elect Chair & Vice Chair, effective next meeting 3
2017 Telecommunications Advisory Commission Work Plan January: Written Annual Report to City Council January-March Meeting with Council? February Park TV marketing, publicity & program report for 2016 Discuss City Council strategic goal: Researching strategic options City fiber deployment update with Chief Information Officer Clint Pires Update on U.S. Internet progress in St. Louis Park May July Review Comcast first quarter complaint log Review CenturyLink first quarter summary City Council strategic goal: Supporting public and private schools and community education initiatives Discuss City Council strategic goal: Using broadband to improve quality of life, and possible resident survey Review Comcast second quarter complaint log October Review staff report on CenturyLink second & third quarter Review Comcast third quarter complaint log Begin discussion of franchise fee review for Comcast: 2015-2017 December Decision about franchise fee review for Comcast 2015-2017 Draft Annual Report for 2017 Set meetings for 2018 Draft Work Plan for 2018 Elect Chair & Vice Chair, effective next meeting
UNOFFICIAL MINUTES ST. LOUIS PARK TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MEETING OF OCTOBER 26, 2016 ST. LOUIS PARK COUNCIL CHAMBERS MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: OTHERS PRESENT: Maren Anderson, Bruce Browning, Cindy Hoffman and Rolf Peterson present at Roll Call. David Dyer arrived at 7:05 p.m. and Abe Levine at 7:08 p.m. None Jacqueline Larson, Communications and Marketing Manager, Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator, and John McHugh, Community TV Coordinator Karly Werner, Comcast Senior Manager Government Affairs 1. Call to Order Chair Peterson called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM. 2. Roll Call Present at roll call were Commissioners Anderson, Browning, and Peterson, joined by Commissioner Dyer at 7:05 p.m. and Commissioner Levine at 7:08 p.m. 3. Approval of Minutes for May 11, 2016 A. Telecommunications Commission minutes: July 27, 2016 Chair Peterson had a correction to the minutes, changing single strand to single mode or multimode fiber. It was moved by Commissioner Browning, seconded by Commissioner Hoffman, to approve the minutes as amended. The motion passed 4-0. B. Telecommunications Commission minutes: May 11, 2016 It was moved by Commissioner Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Browning, to approve the minutes as presented. The motion passed 4-0. 4. Adoption of Agenda It was moved by Commissioner Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Browning, to approve the agenda as presented. The motion passed 4-0. 5. Public Comment None 6. Reports & Discussion A. Review staff report on CenturyLink second & third quarter
Mr. Dunlap said the purpose of the meeting was franchise compliance. CenturyLink now reaches 28,000 living units in St. Louis Park, and 10,000 of them can receive Prism TV. They have about 600 customers in St. Louis Park and paid $2,770 in franchise fees in the second quarter. They provided some customer service statistics, including that they answered 98% of their calls within 30 seconds. ParkTV channels debuted on CenturyLink s system in May, and last week channels 14, 16 and 17 were switched over to HD. Chair Peterson said he s attended three of these meetings now and he finds it fascinating to watch the growth. He said he appreciates their candor. B. Begin discussion of franchise fee review for Comcast: 2014-2016 Mr. Dunlap said the memo in the packet summarized the cost and amount recovered in the most recent franchise fee audits. The city has partnered with others to share the cost, which is expected to be $12,000 to $17,000. The city must give Comcast notice by the end of the year to audit from 2014 to 2016. Chair Peterson asked if there was a possibility to partner with others on this? Commissioner Browning said that was worth looking at, considering the amounts recovered, and the cost of the audits. Commissioner Dyer asked why the cost of the 2005 2008 audit was $12,000, with partners, yet the 2011-2013 audit cost $8,500? Mr. Dunlap said the Request for Proposals can vary in the amount of detail, and that probably there were partners for the 2011-2013 audit. Chair Peterson asked about the process for selecting a firm to do the audit? Mr. Dunlap said that an RFP would be sent to a number of firms that specialize in these audits, and that a member of the Commission and the City Finance Controller typically assist in selecting the best proposal. Commissioner Levine asked if there a cost benefit to doing the audit, since sometimes the recovery is less than the expense? Mr. Dunlap said that is the question for this Commission. Commissioner Browning said it s a fair question. Mr. McHugh said, not all City enforcement actions offer a return on investment. Chair Peterson said he struggles with that each time, and that it doesn t mean there couldn t be a gap, like in the past, and then down the road request another one. Commissioner Levine said if there s not an indication we re not receiving all the money we re due, then why bother? It s not just the expense of the audit, it s the staff time to do the RFP, and the opportunity cost to do other things. If we re coming out ahead I would say OK, but we re not. Commissioner Anderson asked if the money received from an audit went into the same bucket or fund that the audit was paid from? Mr. Dunlap said the franchise fees from Comcast and CenturyLink go into the Cable TV fund. Any fees recovered from the audit would go into that fund, and the expenses would be paid from that fund.
Commissioner Levine said he had a negotiating idea. Since Comcast doesn t want to undergo an audit any more than the City wants to do one. How about negotiating that this is the number you owe us, and move on? Chair Peterson said that this is part of doing business, and a due diligence of making sure they abide by the franchise. We should have it in the budget to do an audit each time whether we do it or not. I lean toward doing it because it is an enforcement issue. That said, I m not in the habit of throwing away money, either. Commissioner Levine said that we could spend the time on the audit, or, looking at the past results, could propose $4,000 and be done with it. It might be a low enough figure that they could consider it noise, and it would be enough that it would be a win for us because we don t have to do the audit. Mr. Dunlap said that he hadn t considered that approach before, and would check with the City Attorney to see if that was appropriate. Commissioner Anderson said that we d received $1.8 million from Comcast from 2011 to 2013, which rounds off to $600,000 per year. $8,000 divided by $600,000 is 1.4%, so if we re going to lose money on the audit, that money is better off in the ParkTV fund. I understand the due diligence, but for 1.4%, I m not as concerned. Chair Peterson said we aren t deciding about whether to ever do an audit again, but about whether to do 2014. We could pick up at 2015, 2016 and 2017 next year. Commissioner Browning made a motion that staff should contact other cities to find out if they could partner in an audit to cut costs, and find out if the City Attorney would approve of a negotiated settlement without an audit. It was seconded by Commissioner Levine, and passed 6-0. C. Comcast complaint review & possible action Commissioner Peterson said he looked it over and was appalled by the number of complaints, but then realized we hadn t had a meeting since May. Mr. Dunlap said that every complaint is unique, but they can be categorized. This year staff has received 89 complaints in 76 calls, as compared to 2014 when there were 97 calls, but 150 complaints, because many customers had several complaints per call. So that s a good sign. He said there were 28 complaints in June and July about the price increase, which is more than usual. In 2014 there were 13 price complaints. Mr. McHugh asked the Comcast representative if they still have customer service reps in Mexico and the Philippines, as one customer complained? Karly Werner, Comcast Senior Manager Government Affairs, said yes. Ms. Werner said that Comcast has opened 3 more customer service centers in the west region in the last year to bring back customer service from some of the third party vendors they d been
using in the Philippines and Mexico. One of the new centers is in St. Paul. Comcast still uses some third party vendors to cover certain hours. Commissioner Browning asked if Comcast had continued to have specialized agents, for example, for billing? Ms. Werner said that they continue to work on that because the business has gotten so complicated. She said there are positive trends in the City s log that what they re focusing on is working. For example, telephone customer service had 26 complaints in 2014, but in 2016 so far there are 11. In technical service and outages, there were 29 in 2014 and only 9 this year. Commissioner Hoffman said that Comcast modems update every night at 2 a.m., and asked if there was a web link at Xfinity.com so customers who have bought their own modems can check to see if there firmware is up to date? CenturyLink now has that available. Ms. Werner said that the My Account app at Xfinity.com could address that and other features so customers don t have to call customer service. Commissioner Hoffman said that she had searched in admin features and couldn t find how to change the SSID, for example. Ms. Werner said she d check with tech staff. Commissioner Dyer said that Comcast is attempting to hide fees so it appears the packages are a lower price, giving the examples of the broadcast and sports fees. He recently talked to a rep about lowering his bill and was told about a much lower package price, but by the time he got the bill, it was only $15 cheaper because of the extra fees. He said customers are frustrated by the extra fees that they aren t anticipating. Ms. Werner said the programming costs have doubled in the last 7 or 8 years, and that is the driver of those fees. Mr. McHugh referred to the May letter from Comcast that said older boxes could lose HD channels. Would customers lose any SD channels? Ms. Werner said no. A handful of customers still have the older boxes that that don t receive MPEG 4 encoded channels, but they have made it as easy as possible to trade for the new equipment at no cost. Commissioner Levine asked if Comcast is looking to sunset standard definition in the next few years? Ms. Werner said it s not clear when standard definition will phase out, or if it will. There is still a significant number of customers that subscribe to SD only. Mr. McHugh asked about the Xfinity TV app, and if that means a customer could sign in with their account information and watch TV on the Wi-Fi at City Hall, for example. Ms. Werner said the live TV is only available in your home network, but on demand is available outside the home. Mr. McHugh asked how many Internet Essentials customers were in Minnesota, out of the 600,000 nation-wide? Ms. Werner said she d have to check, and described the program for the new commissioners.
Commissioner Browning asked about 1-gig service, and if it s available everywhere? Ms. Werner said the DOCSIS 3.1 service will allow 1 gig service, and it s slowly rolling out and being tested, but not sure when it will be available in Minnesota. Commissioner Levine asked how DirecTV Now s over the top service for $35 fit in to Comcast s competitive posture? Ms. Werner said it is a highly competitive market with many choices. We recognize the need for a skinny package. Chair Peterson asked Commissioners what direction they d like to go on the Comcast complaint review options listed on the presentation. Commissioner Hoffman asked about the customer service ordinance listed as an option. Mr. Dunlap said that Brian Grogan has said at MACTA conferences that franchise authorities can establish these, but that he d like to survey existing ordinances in other communities to assure it could be an enforceable agreement. Commissioner Levine asked if there would be penalties in the ordinance, and if so, if there were monetary damages, would that impact the prices for customers? He said we need to be thoughtful about that to avoid increases on the bill. He suggested service level agreements in the next franchise, that they are common to the contracts he signs. Chair Peterson said he d like to continue to monitor complaints quarterly, and to survey to see if other communities have customer service ordinances more stringent than the FCC customer service standards. Commissioners Peterson and Anderson asked for more information about option 2, request call center records from Comcast. Ms. Werner said Comcast has records that prove they meet FCC customer service standards for the metro area, but doesn t specifically tally them for St. Louis Park. Standards include call answer times, appointment windows for service calls and fixing outages. We provide this information to a handful of franchise authorities but the trend with more competition is to move away from this kind of reporting. Commissioner Anderson said that statistics for the east metro or metro-wide don t affect us, that she is interested in the complaints logged by staff. Commissioner Peterson agreed. D. Update from Comcast on channel guide information available to customers with digital adapters, and using ParkTV branding Ms. Werner said this was an error that happened a while back, that it can be corrected and will follow up, and apologized for not fixing this sooner. E. Conflict of interest reminder Mr. Dunlap said the Council wanted to remind all Commissioner s about these guidelines.
F. Control room upgrade to HD servers & Carousels Mr. Dunlap offered to show the new equipment in the control room after the meeting, and said Commissioners Browning and Peterson have already had the tour. ParkTV now has 3 HD channels showing on CenturyLink, and the new servers play more file types which saves staff preparation time. 7. Communications from the Chair, Commissioners and City staff Chair Peterson welcomed new Commissioners David Dyer and Abe Levine. Commissioner Browning found in the Comcast handout that gigabit speeds are available nationwide. Mr. McHugh passed out a programming report for Community TV, and said we ve recorded 83 shows so far this year. 8. Adjournment Commissioner Browning made a motion, Commission Anderson seconded to adjourn at 8:17 p.m. The motion passed 6-0. Respectfully submitted by: Reg Dunlap Civic TV Coordinator
Comcast Complaints logged by City staff. To Telecom Commission for 12/14/16 meeting Name/ address Date/ logger Complaint 1 10/28/16 4:20pm RD 2 11/4/16 11:30am RD I can t get through to Comcast! I ve tried their 800 number and have been cut off several times. So then I tried the web site and got caught in several maddening loops after I entered information. I m calling on behalf of my mother who lives in St. Louis Park. I have several complaints about Comcast. The price is out of control. In the last year I ve paid $165, $178 and $190. Now, it s down to $159. Resolution Provided 651 customer service number, address to Excelsior Blvd. store. Logged complaint and forwarded to Escalation. 11/8/16 10:57am I am writing in response to the email received from your office on October 31, 2016 regarding. I attempted to contact Ms. by the phone number provided. I have mailed an attempt to contact letter to Ms. explaining what she would need to provide to change the billing information for her mother s account. Deb K. TCM should be available for that bundle. 3 11/8/16 11:53am voice mail, RD 4 11/29/16 10am RD 5 10:30am 11/30/16 RD But I just lost TCM. I have the Digital Preferred XF bundle, shouldn t I get it? Also, they just sent me a big box, what for? I didn t order it. I have a fairly serious complaint about Comcast. In 2008 they converted me from a residential to Business internet account with 7 email addresses, for $52 a month for life. Or so I thought. Recently they did an audit and have decided that I need to pay $69 for this level of service. They did suggest dropping a few services if I wanted to save money, and I don t want to do that now. Can they do that? I am finally frustrated enough with Comcast to call and register a complaint. Their customer service people are very rude to deal with. Several times I ve had a problem and called them which is a nightmare, by the way, just trying to get ahold of them. Then you do all the rigamarole unplugging the box and such, and after 10 minutes they hang up on you. This has happened to me several times. Also, I m paying $5.99 for the service protection plan, which is protection for TV and internet and inside wiring and when I bought a new flat screen TV I called to have them set it up. They said there would be an extra charge, that the service protection fee didn t cover that. Also, I used to pay my bill at the Belt Line office but now they ve discontinued that. I ve heard there is another cable company in St. Louis Park, is that right? I have TV and internet from Comcast and I am pretty fed up with them. The price just went up again because my special offer just ended. It s terrible that we have to call and negotiate with them every year. Renting the boxes for $10 a month is a rip off, too. Are there any other providers? Comcast is swapping out some old boxes that won t receive HD channels; but you should see messages on your TV to change to a certain channel to test your box. Even with a franchise, most of their business decisions are at their discretion. However, for price changes of cable service, they are required by federal law to provide 30 days notice. It s a bit of a stretch, but you could tell them that and see if there is anything else they can do to keep you as a happy customer. Sorry to hear that. Explained that the service protection plan is only for inside wiring, not for setting up new TV s. Recommended that this service is not necessary and that she drop it and save $5.99 per month, $70 per year. Told her about the customer service center on Excelsior Blvd, and she was happy to hear about it. Provided CenturyLink phone number, warned her that they do not have a low priced Basic cable similar to Comcast, and that they are not available in all of the City. Provided CenturyLink info, with usual warnings: no Basic cable, not available everywhere in SLP, cable boxes are $10 each. 1
Memo To: Telecommunications Commission From: Reg Dunlap Date: December 7, 2016 Re: Franchise fee audits/reviews background St. Louis Park s franchise with Comcast allows a franchise fee audit every three years. The most recent audit covered 2011-2013, and was conducted in mid-2014. At the October 26, 2016 meeting, Commissioner Browning made a motion that staff should contact other cities to find out if they could partner in an audit to cut costs, and find out if the City Attorney would approve of a negotiated settlement without an audit. It was seconded by Commissioner Levine, and passed 6-0. Staff emailed the request to the MACTA Board and the other Comcast franchise administrators, and has not found any possible partners yet. The estimated cost of doing a franchise fee audit or review is $9,000 to $13,000, based on responses from 2014. Staff contacted City Attorney Joel Jamnik who provided counsel about how to proceed. Summaries of past franchise fee audits and reviews: 2000 & 2001: Audit conducted by Lewis & Associates In November, 2003, the City and Time Warner Cable settled a franchise fee audit which required Time Warner to pay $6,493 for underpayments. The franchise in effect at that time also required Time Warner to pay for the audit, which cost $12,515. In addition, Mr. Lewis discovered 83 addresses that should have been listed as St. Louis Park addresses, and added new categories to franchise fee calculation statements to allow easier tracking of revenue. 2002-2004: Fee Review conducted by Front Range Consulting The fee review is less thorough than an audit, and cost the City $4,250 in partnership with Shakopee, Bloomington and Minneapolis. The settlement of this fee review was part of an overall agreement that included a franchise renewal with Time Warner effective in January, 2006 and a transfer of control to Comcast effective October 1, 2006. As a result of this review, the franchise fee on a fee issue was resolved so that the City would receive additional revenue in the future. (Front Range estimated $60,000 over the 3 year period that could have been collected related to the fee on a fee issue). October 1, 2005-June 30, 2008: Fee review conducted by Lewis & Associates Both Time Warner Cable and Comcast Cable were reviewed for this time period. Mr. Lewis found 11 addresses that should have been attributed to St. Louis Park that were attributed to neighboring cities. The City partnered with other cities and paid $11,875 for the review and recovered $3,338 from Time Warner and $1,542 from Comcast.
July 1, 2008 December 31, 2010: no audits/reviews There was a gap in franchise fee reviews because the Telecommunications Advisory Commission felt that the amounts recovered were significantly less than the cost of the audit, so reviews should not be automatic but should be considered annually. 2011-2013: Fee review conducted by Front Range Consulting Estimated under payments between $10,700 and $12,700 were attributed to the HD technology fee excluded from some package bundles. After viewing the draft report, Comcast offered to pay $6,225.00. As part of the franchise transfer negotiations to GreatLand, Comcast agreed to a payment of $8,000. The cost of the review was $8,500. The City collected $1,855,178 in franchise fees from 2011-2013.