City approves new franchise agreement with Optimum

Josephine Moore, The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va.
·4 min read

Dec. 14—Beckley is hoping to make better uses of its free public, education and government (PEG) channels offered by Optimum as part of a new franchise agreement approved Tuesday night at a city council meeting.

William Kelly, the director of Beckley's Information Technology Services, said Beckley has had a franchise agreement with Optimum, formerly Suddenlink, for some time but the last agreement was approved in 2015.

Prior to council's meeting, a public hearing was held in council chambers to discuss the renewal of the Cable Franchise Agreement with Cequel III Communications II, LLC doing business as Optimum.

During the meeting, which was attended by a representative from Optimum, Kelly asked questions regarding the city's PEG channels which have been inoperable for a majority of 2022.

"The problem that we had is about nine months ago (the PEG channels) quit operating," Kelly said. "The equipment that was used that was provided by Optimum, Suddenlink at the time, wasn't operating and we were having trouble getting somebody to address that issue with us."

In response to Kelly's concerns, Thomas J. O'Neill, who represents government affairs for Altice USA, said he would work to address those issues.

"The (Federal Communications Commission) in a recent public order they published ... cable operators are no longer required to furnish the equipment for the local franchising authorities to take advantage of their PEG rights. However, my commitment to you is that we'll get this straightened out and we'll get you what you need in order to operate the channel effectively," O'Neill said.

Altice USA owns Optimum, which was once Suddenlink.

As part of the franchise agreement, the city receives 5 percent of the gross revenue generated in Beckley by Optimum.

This agreement will be in effect for five years and was approved unanimously by council members.

In an interview with The Register-Herald following the vote, O'Neill said, "It's wonderful that we're going to be able to serve the community for at least another five years. We're operating in a more competitive environment than ever before and we're here to earn our customers' business."

Kelly said he hopes the new franchise agreement will help to address those issues with the PEG channels and allow them to be better utilized by the city.

"There's really three channels that we're supposed to get (from Optimum) — a public channel, an educational channel and a government channel," Kelly said. "We really had only used in the past the public channel ... We'd like to use the government side of that a lot more so we could do things like post the council meetings and things like that."

He added that he'd also like to see their educational channel used by the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley.

"WVU Tech may want to offer online classes, even if they have to pay for the classes, but they could actually deliver those across the (educational) channel," Kelly said. "... In the past we really only took advantage of the basics and we'd really like to expand that and I think our new franchise agreement is much more specific in about what it provides and how it provides it."

In other business, council approved an ordinance to rezone 102 Fourth St. in Beckley from residential to business.

City attorney Bill File said the property was most recently used as a Tudor's Biscuit World but has been vacant for some time.

"This has been requested by the owner and by a potential purchaser of the property who, if this is moved tonight, has plans to convert this into his insurance office, which I think is something that will fit in well in that area of Beckley and certainly should cause no problems to any neighborhoods that are adjacent to that property," File said.

This is the first meeting since August that the public has been allowed in council chambers. For the past four months, council chambers were closed to the public by Beckley Mayor Rob Rappold citing Covid concerns.

The public was still allowed to view meetings virtually or call in using information available on the city's website.

This is the council's final meeting for 2022. Council meetings will resume as scheduled in 2023 on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers at city hall.