Mayor cites lack of competition, loss of WCBS Channel 2
by James McEvoy, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE — Mayor Dave Fried announced Monday his veto of a cable franchise ordinance recently adopted by the Township Committee, which authorized a 10-year cable franchise renewal with Cablevision.
In a letter to Township clerk Michelle Seigfried dated Jan. 6, Mayor Fried cited “a system and a process devoid of fairness and the free market competition our residents were promised several years ago” as the basis for his decision to veto the ordinance, which was adopted by the council Dec. 26.
”While recognizing that many, if not most, of our Township’s residents enjoy having cable television it is apparent that the process that municipalities are required to follow in order to provide this service is severely flawed,” Mayor Fried wrote in the letter. “Not long ago, then-Governor Jon Corzine granted Verizon a statewide franchise allowing it to provide cable service to individual towns through a statewide franchise agreement. This was intended to invite competition among cable providers, and Robbinsville was among the first towns to lend its support to that objective.
”Five years later, that so-called competition is not nearly as robust as the Township and its residents had hoped,” he added.
Mayor Fried said Verizon is unable to provide cable television service to much of Robbinsville, leaving Cablevision as the lone option in the township.
He further noted that Cablevision of Hamilton had announced plans to remove WCBS Channel 2 (New York), which carries a number of popular programming enjoyed by residents, including the National Football League, from the Robbinsville-area system, effective Jan. 28.
”The bottom line is our residents feel shortchanged,” Mayor Fried said. “Cablevision knows it is the lone option here, so it operates more and more like the monopoly it has been to this point. The most common complaint I have received has been: ‘Why can’t I get Verizon FiOS in my neighborhood yet?’”
In a statement Cablevision said the Federal Communications Commission recently licensed a new must carry station to the channel 2 position, which requires that Cablevision move WCBS to a different location in its channel line-up for Optimum customers in the Hamilton-area.
”We will provide customers with the new channel location in the coming weeks,” the statement read. “No customers will lose WCBS.”
Mayor Fried contends some of Cablevision’s business practices amount to little more than backdoor rate increases.
”Will there be a customer rebate Jan. 28 when our customers lose the WCBS Channel 2 programming our residents may enjoy? Incredibly, I have received more mail and phone calls about cable television service than I have about taxes,” he said. “Cablevision Systems Corporation has provided Robbinsville Township with only what it has been legally obligated to provide and nothing more. Relying on prior contracts and hiding beneath the cloak of the Board of Public Utilities, requests for additional services that would benefit our community have been repeatedly met with the Cablevision mantra of ‘We are not required to do that.’ Most of these requests were not unreasonable. Yet, the response is always the same.
”I must oppose a process that is no process at all, but rather a bureaucratic farce,” he added.
The Township Council unanimously approved the ordinance following its introduction Dec. 12.
At the Dec. 12 meeting, Mark Roselli, township attorney, noted how Robbinsville was one of only a few municipalities that do not have a franchise ordinance with the cable company, and said the matter goes back several years.
”There was disagreement I think back then with the mayor with respect to certain aspects of the franchise, and basically, when there was cable competition these ordinances meant something, now there is no cable competition,” Mr. Roselli said.
According to a copy of the ordinance, Cablevision initially filed an application for renewal in September 2007.
”What this particular ordinance (does) is basically establishes a ten-year term, which is less than most,” Mr. Roselli said. “There’s usually a 10-, 15- or 20-year term.
”It has a grant of $18,000 that can be used for certain technology,” he added, noting that amount is also more than is usually provided in such ten-year deals.
In addition, according to the ordinance, free cable access would be provided to Robbinsville schools, the library and municipal buildings.
Another component of the renewal is a provision that residents on longer roads who typically have to pay for lines to be run down to them will not have to do so under the terms of the new agreement.
According to the ordinance, even with township consent, operation is conditioned upon prior approval from the BPU.

