After eight months of negotiations and a lengthy City Council session Thursday, the City of Philadelphia and Comcast finally agreed to a new 15-year franchise agreement.
Several of the sticking points over recent months included the cable giant's commitment to expanding its low-income internet program in Philadelphia and how much Comcast would contribute to the public, government and educational access channels.
Under the deal – which goes up for a full vote from City Council next week, Comcast agreed to give $20 million over 15 years to the access channels, and said its Internet Essentials low-income program will expand to seniors. Furthermore, any future expansions of the program would occur in Philly ahead of other cities and the qualifying stipulation, one must be without internet service for 90 days, will be circumnavigated for some customers by way of a city subsidy, according to Philly.com.
Comcast is the parent company of NBC10.
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