The Nov. 25 meeting of the Paris Select Board is featured on Norway Paris Community Television’s website. The board has agreed to enlist Casco Bay Advisors LLC to help renegotiate the town’s franchise agreement with cable companies. Screenshot

PARIS — Paris will enlist Casco Bay Advisors LLC in updating the town’s franchise agreement with cable companies at the suggestion of the Norway Paris Community Television Board.

The renegotiation of this agreement will allow the public access station and the town to continue collecting franchise fees on cable subscriptions as well as video streaming, or video service provider, subscriptions, in addition to being able to keep up with high definition transmission and other technology, Station Manager Peter Morton told the select board Nov. 25.

L.D. 1967, “An Act to Support Municipal Franchise Agreements,” went into effect in August and the towns will only be able to collect franchise fees from the video service providers, or streaming boxes, that are being increasingly offered by cable companies like Spectrum and Charter Communications, if the agreements are modified.

“I believe this is meant to subvert the franchise fees and phase out cable access channels in general,” Morton said of the cable companies’ push towards online video streaming boxes which operate on Wi-Fi rather than traditional cable boxes that are hardwired by coaxial cable in a residence.

“Franchise agreements are an agreement that is mandated by federal law if any company utilizes the public right of way, so think of the poles and wires owned by a town, they have to get a franchise agreement with the town,” Melanie Sachs, a Maine House representative and original sponsor of the bill, told the WABI 5 news station in Bangor in January.

The Federal Cable Act of 1984 gave municipalities an option to charge cable companies a fee for services.

Sachs says there hasn’t been any enforcement of those franchise agreements at a state level.

Norway Paris Community Television is an “independent, 501 (c)3 non-profit corporation. Our mission is to strengthen the fabric of community life by providing communication tools, training and opportunities for individuals, nonprofit groups, governments and educational institutions,” its website reads.

The last franchise agreement with the cable companies was updated in 2004 and has been grandfathered since then. Morton says that Casco Bay Advisors LLC is the right company to modify the agreement and the Norway PAris Community Television Board has agreed to fund the cost, which will land somewhere in the $2,500 to $5,000 range.

“Sounds like a no-brainer,” Select Board member Chris Williams said.

The Paris Select Board will next meet at the town office at 6 p.m. Dec. 9.