City Council to discuss Comcast contract following outage during Academy Awards

The 85th Annual Academy Awards are over but a local cable provider's service during the show remains on the minds of many.

The stars spent Sunday evening in Los Angeles but local celebrities walked the red carpet during the Oscar Experience at Robinson Film Center in Shreveport.

Party goers were treated like Hollywood Royalty with plenty of food, drinks and photo opportunities.

While the event was a success, there was a slight interruption.

The Robinson Film Center and thousands of other Comcast customers lost connectivity during the broadcast of the Academy Awards on ABC.

The abrupt interruption didn't put a damper on the Oscar Experience.

 The issue at the Film Center was quickly remedied with the aid digital antennas and a tuner courtesy of KTBS 3 News.

However, many in Shreveport were not so lucky.

A major chunk of the broadcast did not air and calls flooded the KTBS 3 News about the cable provider's technical issue.

“Comcast experienced a commercial power outage Sunday night. We are investigating and indications are that a resulting power surge damaged the switch that transfers the headend operation to a generator. We restored the majority of service within two hours and deeply regret the inconvenience to our customers,” said Frances Smith, Government and Regulatory Affairs.

The outage was just the latest in a string of technical issues noticed by residents.

Complaints about Comcast are frequent. City leaders receive letters and emails on the issue weekly.

Shreveport City Council is set to discuss a possible contract renewal with Comcast during Monday's work session.

You can watch the live stream of the session starting at 3p.m. on ktbs.com.

The 25 year franchise fee contract that the city of Shreveport has with Comcast expired at the end of 2012.

City leaders are exploring their options and entertaining the idea of changing which cable provider has exclusive rights inside Shreveport.

FCC rules state the city must include Comcast in some of the negotiations.