(a) Scope of County's Authority. The County may grant one or more franchises, and each such franchise shall be awarded in accordance with and subject to the provisions of this chapter.
(b) Franchise Required. A franchise is required of any person desiring to construct, operate and maintain a cable system within all or any portion of the County. A franchise may be granted by the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors to any person, whether operating under an existing franchise or not, who or which offers to furnish and provide such cable system under and pursuant to the terms and provisions of this chapter and a franchise agreement acceptable to the Board of Supervisors. The grant of a cable franchise is not an authorization to provide other services, nor is it a bar to the imposition of other compensation requirements with regard to the provision of such other services.
(c) Rights Reserved to County. The County hereby expressly reserves the following rights:
(1) To exercise its governmental powers, now or hereafter, to the full extent that such powers may be vested in or granted to the County.
(2) To adopt and promulgate ordinances as it shall find reasonably necessary in the exercise of its lawful police powers. Such power shall include all rights the County may have under 47 U.S.C. 552, the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and the absolute right of the County to manage the public rights-of-way and to adopt such regulations relating to the management of the public rights-of-way as the County and/or its departments shall provide. Nothing in a franchise agreement shall be deemed to waive the requirements of the various codes and ordinances of the County regarding permits, fees to be paid, or manner of construction.
(3) To award additional non-exclusive cable television franchises to serve the County in accordance with the provisions of this chapter and applicable law.
(4) To issue a license, easement or other permit to a person other than a grantee, to permit such person to traverse any portion of a grantee's franchise area in the County in order to provide service outside the County. Such license, easement or other permit, absent a grant or a franchise in accordance with this chapter, does not authorize or permit such a person to provide a cable television service of any nature to a home or place of business in the County or to render any service or connect a subscriber in the County to the grantee's cable television system.
(5) To amend this chapter as well as enact separate ordinances and regulations that become necessary under the County's police powers to protect the health, safety and welfare of its citizens.
(d) Unlawful Acts; Penalties.
(1) It shall be unlawful for any person to establish, operate or carry on the business of distributing to any persons in the County any television signals or radio signals by means of a cable system, unless a franchise therefor has first been obtained pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, and unless such franchise is in full force and effect.
(2) It shall be unlawful for any person to make any unauthorized connection, whether physically, electrically, acoustically, inductively, or otherwise, with any part of a franchised cable system within the County for the purpose of enabling himself or herself or others to receive any television signal, radio signal, picture, program or sound, without payment to the owner of the cable system.
(3) It shall be unlawful for any person, without the consent of a grantee, to willfully tamper with, remove or injure any cables, wires or equipment used for distribution of television signals, radio signals, pictures, programs or sound.
(4) Any person violating any subsection of this section shall be punished by a fine or by imprisonment or by both fine and imprisonment in accordance with Federal, State or local law.
(e) Failure of County to Enforce Compliance. A grantee shall not be excused from complying with any of the provisions of this chapter or the terms and conditions of a franchise agreement by any failure of the County, upon any one or more occasions, to insist upon the grantee's performance or to seek the grantee's compliance with any of the provisions of this chapter or terms or conditions of a franchise agreement.
(Ord. 98-05. Passed 4-15-98.)