Peabody to Begin Renewal Process with Comcast

An increase in picture quality and increased resources for the local cable access station will likely be the only benefits to come from Comcast's upcoming license renewal with the City of Peabody.

While Comcast's current license with the city doesn't expire until November of 2015, the process to renew begins early with the city, according to an article in the Salem News. 

The process will begin with a public workshop on Tuesday, June 2, at 7 p.m. at Wiggin Auditorium with The Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications. They'll discuss what type of things can be accomplished in the renewal process. 

The city can try to leverage for better services, such as channel packages and cable box prices, but, at the end of the day, officials say that only so much can be done. 

“But unless we have a really good reason not to renew the license, we have to renew it,” said Mary Bellavance, secretary for the city’s Cable Television Commission, citing state and federal laws. “We can complain until we’re blue in the face, but nothing will come of it.”

Comcast is the city's only provider and Mayor Ted Bettencourt recently told Patch that there is nothing Peabody can do at the moment to convince Comcast's only competitor in the area, Verizon FiOS, to move into the city. 

Read the full article on the Salem News website.