For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ACCESS CHANNEL. Any capacity on a cable system set aside by a franchise for public, educational or governmental use.
BASIC CABLE SERVICE or BASIC SERVICE. Any service tier that includes the retransmission of local television broadcast signals.
CABLE ACT. The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, 47 U.S.C. §§ 521 et seq., as amended by the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, as further amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, as further amended from time to time.
CABLE OPERATOR. Any person or group of persons:
(1) Who provides cable service over a cable system and directly or through one or more affiliates owns a significant interest in such cable system; or
(2) Who otherwise controls or is responsible for, through any arrangement, the management and operation of such a cable system.
EDUCATIONAL ACCESS or EDUCATIONAL USE. Any capacity on a cable system set aside by a franchise for use by educational institutions.
EQUITABLE PRICE. Fair Market Value adjusted downward for the harm to the city or subscribers, if any, resulting from a franchisee’s or licensee’s breach of its franchise or license, or violation of this chapter, and as further adjusted to account for other equitable factors that may be considered consistent with 47 U.S.C. § 547.
FAIR MARKET VALUE. The price for the cable system valued as a going concern, but with no value allocated to the franchise or license itself.
GOVERNMENTAL ACCESS CHANNEL. Any capacity on a cable system set aside by a franchise for government use.
GROSS REVENUES. Any and all cash or other consideration of any cable operator of a cable system in any way derived from the operation of that cable system to provide cable services in the franchise area. GROSS REVENUES include, by way of illustration and not limitation, monthly fees charged to subscribers for any basic, optional, premium, per-channel or per-program service; installation, disconnection, reconnection and change-in-service fees; leased channel fees; late fees and administrative fees; revenues received from programmers for carriage of programming on the cable system; revenues from rentals or sales of converters or other equipment; advertising revenues; revenues from program guides; and revenues from home shopping channels. This provision shall be read broadly to prevent the avoidance of franchise fees by a cable operator through arrangements with affiliates. GROSS REVENUES shall not include any taxes on services furnished by a franchisee which are imposed directly on any subscriber or user by the state, city or other governmental unit and which are collected by a franchisee on behalf of the governmental unit. GROSS REVENUES do not include amounts booked as revenues which are bad subscriber debt, net of any collections. However, to take advantage of this bad debt exception, a franchisee must exercise due diligence and utilize all reasonable means to collect debt owed to it. Amounts received from a programmer that are provided solely for the purpose of reimbursing the operator for amounts the operator advanced to cover the programmer’s share of co-op advertising costs shall not be treated as the operator’s gross revenues. However, advertising costs subject to this exception do not include charges for carriage of advertising on the cable system.
NON-CABLE SERVICE. Any service that is authorized to be distributed over the cable system, other than a cable service.
PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNEL. Any capacity on a cable system set aside by a franchise for use by the general public, including groups and individuals, and which is available for the use on a non-discriminatory basis.
SERVICE TIER. A package of two or more cable services for which a separate charge is made by the franchisee, other than a package of premium and pay-per-view services that is not subject to rate regulation under the Cable Act and applicable FCC regulations because those services are also sold on a true à la carte basis.
SUBSCRIBER. The city, any government entity or any person who legally receives any cable service from a cable operator delivered over that cable operator’s cable system.
USER. A person or the city utilizing a channel, capacity or equipment and facilities for purposes of producing or transmitting material, as contrasted with the receipt thereof in the capacity of a subscriber.
(Ord. 26-97, passed 9-23-1997)