(A) The franchisee shall not deny service, deny access or otherwise discriminate against subscribers, channel users or general citizens on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, age, sex, conditions of physical disability, ethnic background or marital status. The franchisee shall comply at all times with all other applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations and all executive and administrative orders relating to nondiscrimination which are hereby incorporated and made part of this chapter by reference.
(B) The franchisee shall strictly adhere to the equal employment opportunity requirements of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and to state and local regulations, as amended from time to time.
(C) No signals shall be transmitted from a subscriber terminal for purposes of monitoring individual viewing patterns or practices without the express written permission of the subscriber and filing a copy of the written permission with the City Clerk. The request for such permission shall be contained in a separate document with a prominent statement the subscriber is authorizing the permission in full knowledge of its provision. The written permission shall be for a limited period of time not to exceed one year, which shall be renewable at the option of the subscriber. No penalty shall be invoked for a subscriber's failure to provide or renew such an authorization. The authorization shall be revocable at any time by the subscriber without penalty of any kind whatsoever provided such revocation request may be required to be in writing by the franchisee. The authorization is required for each type or classification of activity planned provided, however, the franchisee shall be entitled to conduct system wide or individually addressed "sweeps" for the purpose of verifying system integrity, controlling return-path transmission or billing for services.
(D) The franchisee, or any of its agents or employees, shall not act inconsistently with the provisions of any applicable federal, state or local law governing the maintenance, disclosure and protection of the personally identifiable information of a cable subscriber.
(E) The cable system shall be operated in a manner consistent with the principle of fairness and equal accessibility of its facilities, equipment, channels, studios and other services to all citizens, businesses, public agencies or other entities having a legitimate use for the network; no one shall be arbitrarily excluded from its use; and allocation of use of the facilities shall be made according to the rules or decisions of the franchisee and any regulatory agencies affecting the same.
(F) Except to the extent the city may not enforce such a requirement, the franchisee is prohibited from discriminating in its rates or charges or from granting undue preferences to any subscriber, potential subscriber, group of subscribers or group of potential subscribers. This is provided, however, that franchisee may offer temporary, bona fide promotional discounts in order to attract or maintain subscribers, so long as such discounts are offered on a non-discriminatory basis to similar classes of subscribers throughout the franchise area. This is further provided that franchisee may offer discounts for the elderly, the disabled, the economically disadvantaged and such other discounts as it is expressly entitled to provide under federal law, if such discounts are applied in a uniform and consistent manner. The franchisee shall comply at all times with all applicable federal laws related to rate regulation and to any state or local laws to the extent such are not preempted.
(G) In the event a subscriber files a claim of discrimination with the franchisee, the franchisee shall forward a copy of the complaint along with a written explanation of how the complaint was resolved to the City Administrative Officer of the City of Hopkinsville, P.O. Box 707, Hopkinsville, KY 42241-0707. The decision by the Franchisee may be appealed to the Hopkinsville Cable Television Oversight Authority, which may uphold, reverse or alter the decision of the franchisee. Nothing herein shall limit a subscriber from pursuing any other legal remedies.
(Ord. 02-2007, passed 1-16-2007)