OCEAN CITY — In response to a citizen complaint about the rising cost of cable television, at least one Ocean City elected official this week attempted to set the record straight on the relationship between the town and Comcast.
In December, the Ocean City Mayor and Council got a briefing from Comcast, the town’s sole cable television franchisee, on the company’s plan for 2016. The briefing included an update on Comcast’s offerings to its customers in the resort, a promise of improved service and, of course, an inevitable cost hike for consumers.
Comcast Director and Government and Regulatory Affairs Chris Comer told Ocean City officials the cable and Internet giant was dedicated to improving service and increasing its offerings to residents and visitors, but also added the changes will come with a price for consumers. Most of the cable television, Internet and phone services, along with the combined packages of two or more, will come with a modest increase for the consumer, from as low as 50 cents a month in some cases to as high as $3 per month in others.
With the calendar flipping to 2016 last week, the price hikes are starting to be implemented and not everyone is happy with it. During the public comment period of Monday’s Mayor and Council meeting, an Ocean City resident blasted the town’s elected officials over the increased fees, the cable television offerings from Comcast and a variety of other complaints related to the resort’s sole cable television provider.
When it was the council’s turn to respond to public comments, Councilman Dennis Dare took the opportunity to clear the air over just what the town’s relationship with Comcast is.
“Comcast has a franchise agreement with the town of Ocean City,” he said. “It’s not exclusive. Anybody can come in and compete with Comcast.”
Dare explained the town’s franchise agreement with Comcast merely covered the right-of-way easements, allowing the media company to place its cable and other equipment on town property. Dare explained the agreement does not allow Ocean City to dictate cable television prices for its consumers, nor what is offered by Comcast.
“We have no say over what channels they carry or how much they charge,” he said. “We have no power or authority to do that. The franchise agreement only covers the use of our right-of-way.”
Dare further explained Ocean City charges Comcast a healthy fee for the use of the town’s right-of-ways, which offsets the resort’s costs of repairing or repaving when new cable lines are installed, for example.
“We charge them a $1 million fee for the use of our right-of-ways for their cables and equipment, but we don’t have to charge that,” he said. “We could put that into the budget and add a penny to the tax rate, but that wouldn’t be fair because not everybody has cable.”