(a) Following completion of the System upgrade/rebuild, unless otherwise provided in a Franchise Agreement, Grantee shall make available to each of its Subscribers who receive at least Basic Cable Service, reception of at least three (3) Public, Educational, and Government (PEG) Access Channels to be allocated among non-commercial public, educational, and government usage as determined by Grantor. The Channels designated for access shall be provided by Grantee as a part of the Basic Cable Service. The access Channels shall be made available by Grantee for use by the City and its citizens in accordance with the rules and procedures established by the City or any lawfully designated person, group, organization or agency authorized by the City for that purpose.
(b) To the extent that any access Channel is not being used for the provision of public, educational or governmental access purposes, Grantee shall be permitted to use such Channel(s) for the provision of other services subject to any reasonable rules established by the City regarding such use. Grantee’s permitted use of any access Channel made pursuant to this section shall cease within ninety (90) days of Grantee's receipt of notice from City that such Channel will again be used for public, educational or governmental access.
(c) Notwithstanding the above, Grantee may accommodate a request from the City for additional access capacity made pursuant to Section 921.24(b) by combining more than one access use on a Channel provided that:
(1) It is technically and economically feasible for Grantee to do so;
(2) The scheduling needs of all users of the Channel can be reasonably accommodated; and
(3) The access entity which requires use of the alternate Channel must be able to access the alternate Channel from the site where it normally originates playback of its programs and may not be required to transport tapes to a remote site for playback.
(d) However, Grantee shall provide an additional PEG Channel for non-commercial public, educational, or government broadcasts in the event that the three (3) PEG channels provided under this Section are then fully utilized. In no event shall Grantee be required to provide in excess of one additional access Channel and only after the Cable System offers at least 150 channels. As used in this section "fully utilized" mean utilized for original, nonduplicative programming not less than eight (8) hours per day, five (5) days per week, for a period of ten (10) consecutive weeks. The additional PEG Channel provided under this Section shall be reviewed annually by Grantee. Upon such annual review, the additional PEG Channel will continue to be made available to Grantor to the extent that the PEG Channels provided under this Agreement (including the additional PEG Channel(s)) are at least seventy percent (70%) fully utilized. To the extent that such capacity requirement is not met, the additional PEG Channel shall be terminated subject to reactivation at the request of Grantor upon demonstration by Grantor that the three original and any other additional PEG Channels provided under this Section are fully utilized, and to the annual review provided herein.
(e) The Grantee shall provide free cable transmission facilities and free modulation equipment to introduce programming onto these transmission facilities by linking the below listed origination points with the head end, or through hubs to the head end, for distribution to all Subscribers generally and for distribution to discrete audiences via scrambled signals and decoders at the origination points for such Channels. The Grantee is responsible for all head end equipment essential to playback of programming, including operation and maintenance and studio and equipment acceptable to Grantor for PEG access use, and all equipment necessary to perform those functions.
(f) In lieu of providing the equipment and facilities described in paragraph (e) above, Grantee shall pay a fee as specified in the Franchise Agreement not to exceed one percent (1%) of adjusted Gross Revenues (Gross Revenues above net of Franchise Fee) to be placed by Grantor in a special fund for such PEG access purposes.
(g) The Grantor shall be responsible for the operation of Access Facilities and equipment. In this regard Grantor may delegate from time to time its responsibilities to others who then shall assume the responsibility of Grantor in accordance with the Grantor's delegation. The Grantor will develop reasonable rules regarding use of Access Facilities and equipment and determine the needs of the City for public, educational and governmental access services. In this regard, the Grantor shall regularly coordinate with Grantee for the purpose of developing and maintaining reasonable Access Facilities.
(h) Costs of providing said facilities shall not be a credit against payment of the Franchise Fee imposed under the Franchise Agreement.
(Ord. 1997-58. Passed 5-15-97.)
(i) The Mayor may waive the requirements of subsections (e) and (f) herein for any Cable Provider. (Ord. 1997-225. Passed 11-6-97.)