Robbinsville Mayor David Fried gives his State of the Township address 3/7/2013

Robbinsville Mayor David Fried gives his State of the Township address to members of the MidJersey Chamber of Commerce at the Grainger Industrial Supply Distribution Center in Robbinsville on Thursday, March 7, 2013.

(Martin Griff/The Times of Trenton)

ROBBINSVILLE — Mayor Dave Fried is determined to find a new cable provider after Cablevision announced that it would drop some New York programming for Mercer County subscribers.

In a letter to municipal clerk Michele Seigfried yesterday, Fried vetoed the township council’s cable franchise ordinance that would have granted Cablevision sole rights to provide cable television in the township.

“While recognizing that many, if not most, of our Township’s residents enjoy having cable television, it is apparent that the process that municipalities are required to follow in order to provide this service is severely flawed,” Fried wrote in the letter.

In 2006, Verizon was granted a statewide franchise to bring its FiOS cable television across the state — providing competition with landmark cable providers such as Cablevision and Comcast — but has yet to complete its buildout in Mercer County, Fried said.

“There’s no choice. You’re stuck with what you’re stuck with,” Fried said. “The bottom line is our residents feel shortchanged.”

Fried made his decision over the weekend, after Cablevision announced that it would drop the New York affiliate of CBS on Channel 2, another in a series of programming drops he called “back door rate increases.”

Cablevision can save on costs by dropping programming, but won’t “pass those discounts along to the customers,” Fried said. “There aren’t any choices left for people. Cablevision knows it is the lone option here, so it operates more and more like the monopoly it has been to this point.”

Without a 10-year franchise ordinance, it opens other cable providers to pitch their product to township officials and residents. Fried said he had scheduled meetings with Cablevision officials to try to reach a resolution.

“The FCC recently licensed a new must carry station to the channel 2 position, which requires that Cablevision move WCBS to a different location in its channel line-up for Optimum customers in the Hamilton-area," Cablevision spokeswoman Charlstie Veith said in a statement. "We will provide customers with the new channel location in the coming weeks. No customers will lose WCBS.”

As part of the ordinance, Cablevision would pay a 2 percent franchise fee of gross revenues from subscription fees.

The five-member township council unanimously voted for the ordinance on Dec. 26, days before the CBS decision was announced.

Contact Mike Davis at (609) 989-5708 or mdavis@njtimes.com.

This article has been updated to include a statement issued by a Cablevision spokeswoman.

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