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Cable TV Assistance

KCIT can assist cable TV subscribers in unincorporated King County resolve billing or service disputes with their cable company. We can also assist with negotiations to build out cable infrastructure to your home.

 

Cable TV rates and channels

The Franchise Fee or Rights of Way (ROW) Fee is a charge the cable company pays King County in order to use our roads to lay their cable and provide cable TV service to subscribers in our community. This fee is based on 5 percent of the revenue collected by the cable company. Federal cable legislation allows the cable companies to pass on this fee to their customers.
The fee for Public, Education and Government (PEG) supports video equipment for King County Television (KCTV – Channel 22) and Voice of Vashon (VOV – Channel 21), providing video broadcast of the King County Council and other government, educational and community events and programs. The cable franchise agreements allow for channel placement of KCTV and VOV on the Comcast Cable and WAVE Broadband cable systems.

Low-income discounts

Comcast offers a 30 percent discount (or about $5) on its Limited Basic cable service (the lowest tier of cable TV service offered) to low-income senior citizens (65 years or older) or those who have a permanent disability living in unincorporated King County.

To be eligible, a resident cannot earn more than $41,292 total per household per year. Customers can subscribe to more than one service package, but the low-income discount only applies to the price of the Limited Basic tier of TV service; it doesn’t apply to Internet or telephone services.

If you are on a promotional or introductory rate, you will not receive this discount until the promotional rate period has ended. If you think you are qualified to receive a low-income discount, contact the Office of Cable Communications

For a discount on internet service see information on the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

What are franchise agreements?

Each municipality within King County has its own franchise agreement with the cable companies that serve their area. Each of those agreements has different terms and conditions. The franchise agreement between King County and Comcast applies only to unincorporated King County. KCIT enforces compliance with that franchise agreement.

If you live within the city limits of one of the cities in King County, the cable office in that city will assist you as it enforces compliance with the franchise agreement covering your neighborhood. Here is a list of cable offices in Western Washington.

The King County Office of Cable Communications was established in 1986 to negotiate, monitor, and enforce the rules set forth in the cable television franchises held by cable TV companies operating in unincorporated King County (outside city limits). We collect a franchise fee of 5 percent of gross revenues from the cable companies for their use of the County's rights-of-way. In 2022, $2.82 million in franchise fees was collected and deposited into the County's General Fund.

Cable TV Route Map - get cable services for your home

This map indicates the location of cable TV facilities owned and operated by Comcast and WAVE Broadband. The map includes information specific to unincorporated King County; the data for incorporated areas is incomplete because the intention of the map is to show facilities in unincorporated King County. The data is current as of June 2016 and has been provided to the County by Comcast and WAVE Broadband. A serviceability check by the cable company is necessary to verify the availability of service to any area in unincorporated King County.

The map includes a numbered grid to identify the map book page number for a given area. The map book page shows the neighborhoods and facilities at a larger scale and distinguishes between underground and aerial lines. Click on the grid to download a pdf of that map section.

If you need assistance negotiating cable infrastructure build-out to your home, please contact our office.

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