A total of $4 million in payments from Comcast Corp. will yield a new high-tech media center for Marin's cable television subscribers and a fiber-optic network for the county's public agencies - but subscribers will repay the money in fees over the next 10 years.

The deal is part of a proposed 10-year draft franchise agreement with the cable giant, which has 62,000 subscribers in Marin.

Subscribers would pay a new fee to cover the cost of the new media center. Marin Telecommunications Agency Executive Director Martin Nichols estimated the average fee at 60 cents per month over 10 years, depending on the subscribers' total bill.

If all goes as planned, the county will be able have up to six public access television channels at its own locally run media center. In addition, the agreement would include a high-speed cable Internet system serving 31 public agencies, schools and libraries with capability for TV broadcasts of city council meetings or news conferences - as well as emergency alerts.

"We're fine-tuning the language in the proposed draft franchise agreement," said Tom Robinson, an MTA consultant. "If the agreement is approved, it will be effective in 30 days."



The franchise agreement, in the works with Comcast for the past year and with AT&T Broadband and TCI cable providers for several years before that, could be adopted within the next month, Robinson said at an MTA board meeting Wednesday.

"We're hoping to have an adoption-focused meeting in April," said MTA board Chairman Dan Hillmer. "We're thinking of a possible special meeting on April 5, and then a regular board meeting on April 12."

A board subcommittee on the media center will meet from 4 to 7 p.m. March 22 and 23, and April 5 and 6 in Room 324A of the Civic Center in San Rafael. The subcommittee intends to use the meetings to create a media center operations plan - necessary to satisfy Comcast's requirement for receiving the first $1 million.

The plan also would spell out the media center location. College of Marin in Kentfield is a potential site, but others may be in the running.

The first $1 million from Comcast would go toward media center equipment. Another $2 million would follow in $500,000 increments for such things as construction and remodeling costs, transition startup needs and equipment to distribute the services in the community.

The cable company also would pay another $1 million for a 31-point fiber-optic institutional network, or I-Net, to serve Marin public agencies and schools with high-speed audio and visual Internet access. Revenue for I-Net would come from the public agencies that use it, Nichols said.

"This is designed to be a backbone network," Robinson said.

"This is a big, big deal - having this kind of fiber connectivity does not happen in many other cable franchises."

The MTA - which includes all Marin cities and towns except Novato and parts of West Marin - would receive about $2.5 million in fees from the Comcast agreement. That revenue comes from a separate 5 percent fee included in subscribers' bills.

Activists in the audience of about 25 at Wednesday's MTA board meeting at Larkspur City Hall had many complaints about the agreement and the MTA's failure to release the proposal this week as previously announced.

Peter Franck of Media Action Marin said he filed a state public records act request to see a copy of the draft franchise agreement. MTA attorney Greg Stepanicich said he could not release the actual document because it was still in negotiation, and disclosure could jeopardize the MTA's position.

Vera Fawk of Mill Valley Seniors for Peace said Comcast's plan not to issue new low-income discounts will hurt many in the county. The cable company will continue the 20 percent discounts for those who already have them, but no new discounts will be available.

Instead, Comcast will provide cable TV access at the Manzanita Senior Center in Marin City, the Pickleweed Park Community Center in San Rafael and a third community center to be named, Hillmer said.

"This isn't what we wanted," Hillmer said. "We fought (in the negotiations) for the new discounts, but we couldn't get it."

David Mathison of Tiburon, author of a forthcoming book, "Be the Media," said he wanted Comcast to provide stronger privacy protections for Marin subscribers. He said assurances that the cable company would follow federal guidelines weren't enough.

Tica Lyons of Mill Valley objected to a budget transfer that would allow for a $13,000 increase in the MTA's budget for legal fees. As a result of the transfer, the agency's legal account, which covers attorney's fees for the Comcast negotiations, will rise to $83,000, Nichols said.

Lyons said she thought the negotiations could be handled more efficiently.


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