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Chaska holds public hearing on Comcast franchise renewal; PEG channels would move to HD, fees largely unchanged
Summary
City staff opened a public hearing on a proposed 10-year renewal of Comcast’s cable franchise. The draft keeps the 5% franchise fee, shifts PEG support from a per-subscriber charge to 1% of Comcast gross annual revenue and would convert two government/public access channels to HD by relinquishing an unused channel.
CHASKA, Minn. — City staff opened and closed a public hearing Monday on a proposed renewal of the City of Chaska’s cable franchise with Comcast (the corporate name referenced in staff materials) and outlined key negotiated changes.
The proposal would retain the existing 5% franchise fee cap and change how PEG (public, educational and government) support is calculated. Instead of a fixed per-subscriber amount, the draft franchise would provide PEG funding equal to 1% of Comcast’s gross annual revenue. Staff said the change avoids dependence on subscriber counts as households shift to alternate video services.
A central technical change in the draft is reassigning an unused SD channel (channel 16) so the city’s two active PEG channels (14 and 15) can broadcast in high definition. Kevin (city staff) said HD broadcasts make meeting audio-visual materials, slides and names easier to read and view on modern TVs. He told the council that the franchise term in the draft is for 10 years.
The federal and competitive context Staff noted that federal law currently limits local franchising authority over broadband/fiber providers, so the franchise tool applies to traditional cable operators. The city’s franchise also includes provisions for live origination at remote locations and technical arrangements—such as cable modem access at remote sites—to support live event broadcasts into the city’s PEG channels.
Public hearing and next steps No members of the public came forward in person or via Zoom to comment during the hearing, and the council closed the hearing the same night. Staff said the proposed franchise would return to the council for formal action at a future meeting (the materials referenced a July 21 agenda for a possible follow-up). No ordinance action was taken at the June 30 meeting.
