City of Binghamton Wants A Bigger Piece of the Action from Time Warner Cable

The city of Binghamton, in southern New York, is asking for an increase in its franchise fee from Time Warner Cable.  Franchise fees are paid by cable operators to the communities they serve in return for the right to wire those communities for cable.  The city is seeking a percentage increase in their franchise fee, from 3% of cable revenues to 5%.

Cable operators routinely break these fees out on customer’s cable bills, recovering the fees from consumers.  Any franchise fee increase will likely be passed along to customers dollar for dollar, something that concerns hard-pressed New Yorkers, already paying the nation’s highest taxes and fees, and facing even more as the state government attempts to cope with a budget shortfall.

WICZ in Binghamton has the story.

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