Staff said the city and programmers can do “in good faith” negotiations — meaning the station cannot just provide one offer to the city — but that does not mean it has to accept the city’s counteroffer.

“We make an offer to them and they have to respond,” City Attorney Will Sanders said. “They can say, ‘thanks, but no thanks.’”

Sykes said the city does not have to carry these stations on its cable system, but until it got to the point when customers were not willing to pay for the channels, that would likely not be an option.

“That is not something to take lightly,” he said. “Viewers depend on those channels.”

Williams said programmers also will not allow providers to have “a la carte” options, or, have customers choose from a menu to select only the programs they want.

The upcoming digital television conversion was also addressed.

Williams said only customers who get signals over the air (antenna) will be affected by the digital transition. CNS will receive the digital signal and send it out as analog to its cable customers.

Final approval will be given during the Jan. 21 meeting, moved from Jan. 26 because of a state council conference. Once given, these rates will go into effect March 1.

“This will give us enough to continue to provide the service and pay the margin of debt we owe,” Sykes said.