Ambrosino: City had little leeway in negotiating with Comcast

REVERE – The city and Comcast have agreed to a 10-year contract renewal following what Mayor Thomas Ambrosino described as largely “fruitless” negotiations with the cable television provider.Ambrosino made his frustration with lengthy talks between the city and the company in a letter to City Councilors underscoring Comcast’s decision to no longer operate a local access channel.It will be up to the city to make future arrangements for locally oriented programming with Comcast providing a channel for local viewing.”Although the city preferred to avoid this transfer of studio control, Comcast was adamant. The goal is to have a local access non-profit owned and operate a new studio/media center,” the mayor stated in his letter.Comcast spokesman Mark Goodman called the company’s decision to shift control of the local studio to the city and a non-profit a benefit to Revere viewers.”This transition returns access to rightful owners and gives the community more access to localize,” Goodman said.Ambrosino said the contract renewal provides for Comcast to operate its Revere studio until May 31 by which time the city will have had to find another operator and a new studio location.The agreement outlines $600,000 in negotiated payments to the city and a tentative agreement between Comcast and the city to maintain a cable rate discount for seniors.”Frankly,” Ambrosino stated in his letter to councilors, “while the contract is hardly noteworthy, it is the best we could obtain from Comcast. And, without competition, the city has very little leverage to demand any major concessions from Comcast.”Goodman described the renewal agreement as “mutually beneficial to Comcast and our customers.””In the last five years, Revere and neighboring communities have received a tremendous amount of high speed service options,” he said.