A ten-year franchise agreement between Lexington and Time Warner Cable was approved Thursday by the Urban County Council.
Thursday’s agreement comes at the tail end of negotiations with the cable company over giving control of its local assets to Comcast and Charter Communications. The Urban County Council had received many complaints about the company’s customer service and threatened to deny TWC’s transfer. Vice Mayor Lisa Gorton said this tactic was key to bringing Time Warner to the table.
“I think many cities weren’t willing to do the hard work, maybe were afraid to say we’re not gonna approve the transfer of control. There’s probably a number of reasons they didn’t go that route, but it definitely gave us leverage to continue our discussions.”
TWC made several concessions such as expanding customer service hours, committing to maintain the city’s public access channels, and providing customers with the ability to return their cable equipment free through the mail. TWC is obligated to provide a box for this purpose when asked.
