NY seeking cable bill of rights
NEW YORK (AP) - March 26, 2008 Franchise agreements for the city's two main cable companies,
Time Warner Cable and Cablevision, expire in October and
negotiations have begun for their renewal contracts.
Comptroller William Thompson Jr. says the city should take this
opportunity to insist on a bill of rights for customers.
It includes requirements for companies to collect and report
detailed data about customer complaints and outages, to better
explain the charges on monthly cable bills and more disclosure
about how much consumers are charged for different categories of
channels.
Franchise agreements are approved by a panel comprised of
Thompson, the five borough presidents and two mayoral appointees.