Azusa Municipal Code Art. I In General

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Cable Communications Franchise Ordinance."

(Ord. No. 95-08, art. I, 4-17-95)

For the purpose of this chapter, the following words, terms, phrases, and their derivations shall have the meanings given herein. When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present tense include the future tense, words in singular number include the plural number. The word "shall" is always mandatory and not merely directory.

Additional service means any service not included in "basic service" or "institutional service."

Administrative officer means the city manager or his/her designee.

Agency subscriber means a subscriber who receives a service in a government or public agency, school, or nonprofit corporation facility.

Affiliated person or affiliates means each person who falls into one or more of the following categories: (i) each person having, directly or indirectly, a controlling interest in grantee; (ii) each person in which grantee has, directly or indirectly, a controlling interest; (iii) each officer, director, general partner, limited partner holding an interest of five percent or more, joint venturer or joint venture partner, of grantee; and (iv) each person, directly or indirectly, controlling, controlled by, or under common control with grantee; provided that "affiliated person" shall in no event mean the grantor, any limited partner holding an interest of less than five percent of grantee, or any creditor of grantee solely by virtue of its status as a creditor and which is not otherwise an affiliated person by reason of owning a controlling interest in, being owned by, or being under common ownership, common management, or common control with grantee.

Attachment point means the point at which grantee's drop attaches to subscriber-owned equipment.

Basic service, or basic cable service or basic service means the lowest service tier which includes the retransmission of local television broadcast signals.

Broadcast signal means a signal transmitted over the air to a wide public geographic audience and received by a cable system.

1984 Cable Act means the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984.

1992 Cable Act means the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992.

Cable Act means the 1984 Cable Act as amended by the 1992 Cable Act.

Cable operator means any person or group of persons (a) 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 (b) who otherwise controls or is responsible for, through any arrangement, the management and operation of such a cable system.

Cable service means (a) the one-way transmission to subscribers of (i) video programming, or (ii) other programming service, and/or (b) subscriber interaction, if in conjunction with subparagraph (a), which is required for the selection of such video programming.

Cable system or cable communications system or system means a facility, consisting of a set of closed transmission paths and associated signal generation reception, and control equipment that is designed to provide cable service which includes video programming and which is provided to multiple subscribers within a community, but such term does not include (a) a facility that serves only to retransmit the television signals of one or more television broadcast stations; (b) a facility that serves only subscribers in one or more multiple unit dwellings under common ownership, control, or management, unless such facility or facilities uses any public right-of-way; (c) a facility of a common carrier which is subject, in whole or in part, to the provisions of Title II of the Cable Act, except that such facility shall be considered a cable system (other than for purposes of section 621(c)) to the extent such facility is used in the transmission of video programming directly to subscribers; or (d) any facilities of any electric utility used solely for operating its electric utility systems.

Cablecast signal means a nonbroadcast signal that originates within the facilities of the cable system whether from a live or recorded source.

City means the City of Azusa, California.

Closed circuit or institutional service means services provided to institutional users on an individual or collective basis. The information contained in such a service may or may not be simultaneously available to other system subscribers or users.

Channel means a frequency band capable of carrying a standard video signal or some combination of video signals, or a frequency band assigned to carry a nonstandard video signal or some combination of such video signals.

Commercial subscriber means a subscriber who receives a cable service in a place other than a residential dwelling unit.

Complaint means a billing dispute or service call in which a subscriber is notifying grantee of an outage and/or degradation in picture quality.

Control or controlling interest means actual working control in whatever manner exercised, including, without limitation, working control through ownership, management, debt instruments, or negative control, as the case may be, of the system, the franchise or grantee. A rebuttable presumption of the existence of control or a controlling interest shall arise from the beneficial ownership, directly or indirectly, by any person or group of persons acting in concert (other than underwriters during the period in which they are offering securities to the public) of five percent or more of any person (which person or group of persons is hereinafter referred to as "controlling person") or being a party to a management contract.

Control or controlling interest as used herein may be held simultaneously by more than one person or group of persons.

Converter or terminal means a device which converts signals from one frequency to another or otherwise processes signals for use by subscribers.

Drop means the cable and related equipment connecting the system's plant to equipment at the subscriber's premises.

Education channel means any channel where nonprofit educational institutions are the primary designated programmers.

FCC means the Federal Communications Commission or its designated representative(s)

Franchise means a written legal undertaking or action of the grantor which awards permission to a specific named person or entity to use the streets and public ways for the purpose of installing, operating and maintaining a cable television system to provide cable service.

Government channel means any channel where local government agencies are the primary designated programmers and programming is informational programming regarding government activities and programs.

Grantee means the entity to which a franchise is granted for the construction, operation, maintenance, and reconstruction of a cable system and the lawful successors, transferees, or assignees of said entity.

Grantor means the entity establishing this chapter for territory within its present and future jurisdiction, its elected governing body, and/or such representative person or entity as it may designate to act on cable matters in its behalf.

Gross annual revenue or gross annual receipts or gross receipts means all revenue, as determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, including all revenues designated or classified as set aside or attributed for franchise fees, which is received, directly or indirectly, by grantee and by each affiliated person from or in connection with the distribution of any service on the system or the provision of any service related activity in connection with the system, whether or not authorized by any franchise, including, without limitation, the value of any free services provided by grantee (other than those provided to grantor or those authorized or required by a franchise or those provided at the discretion of grantee as a contribution to a charitable or other organization exempt from taxation as an entity described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended). Gross annual revenue shall also include all revenue of any other person, including, without limitation, leased or access channel programmers, which is received directly or indirectly, from or in connection with the distribution of any service over the system or the provision of any service related activity in connection with the system. It is intended that all revenue collected by the grantee and each affiliated person from any activity relating to the system, whether or not authorized, be included in this definition. Gross annual revenue shall also specifically include: (i) the fair market value of any nonmonetary (i.e., barter) transactions between grantee and any person, other than an affiliated person, but not less than the customary prices paid in connection with equivalent transactions; (ii) the fair market value of any nonmonetary (i.e., barter) transaction between grantee and any affiliated persons but not less than the customary prices paid in connection with equivalent transactions conducted with persons who are not affiliated persons; and (iii) any revenue received reasonably determined from time to time by the grantor, through any means which is intended to have the effect of avoiding the payment of compensation that would otherwise be paid to the grantor for the franchise granted herein. Gross annual revenue shall also include any bad debt recovered. Gross annual revenue shall also include all advertising revenue which is received directly or indirectly by grantee, any affiliated person or any other person from or in connection with the distribution of any service over the system or the provision of any service related activity in connection with the system. Gross annual revenue shall not include: (i) the revenue of any person to the extent that said revenue is also included in gross annual revenue of grantee; and (ii) taxes imposed by law on subscribers which grantee is obligated to collect.

Headend means that central portion(s) of the system where signals are introduced into and received from the balance of the system.

Institutional network or institutional system means a system or portion of a system intended primarily to service nonresidential subscribers.

Lease channel means any channel where someone other than grantor or grantee is sold the rights to air programming.

Local origination channel means any channel where the grantee is the primary designated programmer.

Monitoring or tapping means observing or receiving a signal, or the absence of a signal, where the observer is neither the sending nor receiving party and is not authorized by the sending and/or receiving party to observe said signal, whether the signal is observed or received by visual, electronic, or any other means whatsoever.

Nonbroadcast signal means a signal that is not involved in over-the-air broadcast for general public reception.

Open channel means any channel that can be received by all subscribers, without the use of special equipment not normally possessed by, or available to, anyone who may become a subscriber.

Pay cable or pay service, premium service or pay television means signals for which there is a fee or charge to users over and above the charge for basic service including any tiers of service; provided, however, the sale or lease of studio facilities, equipment, and/or tapes to local users shall not be deemed pay or premium services.

PEG channel means a public, education or government channel.

Person means any corporation, partnership, proprietorship, individual or organization authorized to do business in the State of California or any natural person.

Plant means the transmitting medium and related equipment which transmits signals between the headend and subscribers, including drops.

Program or programming means the information content of a signal and the act or process of creating such content, whether that content is intended to be pictures and sound, sound only, or any other form of information whatsoever.

Programmer means any person or entity who or which provides program material or information for transmission by means of a system.

Property of grantee means all property owned or leased within the franchise area by grantee in the conduct of its system business under a franchise granted hereunder.

Public channel, access channel, community service channel or community channel means any channel for which members of the public or any community organization may provide nonadvertiser supported programming; provided, however, sponsorship identification fees may be paid and accepted to further community, programming.

Resident means any person residing in the franchised area or as otherwise defined by applicable law.

Residential dwelling unit means a home, mobile home, condominium, apartment, cooperative unit and any other individual dwelling unit.

Residential subscriber means a subscriber who receives a service in a dwelling unit.

Service means any kind of service or type of benefit provided by grantee or group of related benefits or abilities, obtained or made available to any person or entity, involving the use of a signal transmitted via a cable communications system, whether the signal and its content are the entire service or comprise only a part of a service which involves other elements of any number or kind.

Service area means the entirety of the City of Azusa.

Service interruption means the loss of picture or sound on one or more cable channels.

Service tier or tier means a category of cable service or other services provided by a cable operator and for which a separate rate is charged by the cable operator other than per channel or per event programming or legitimate packages of per channel or per event programming.

Streets and public ways means the surface and the space above and below any public street, sidewalk, alley, or other public way or right-of-way of any type whatsoever.

Subscriber means any person or other entity electing to subscribe to, for any purpose, a service provided by grantee by means of or in connection with its cable system.

Unit means a discrete place where system services are used, such as a residence, apartment, office, store, etc.

User(s) means any person or entity who either receives services from a cable system or who accomplishes any purpose by, in part or in whole, transmitting or receiving information via a cable system, or who creates programming for that purpose, or who receives and uses programming.

Terms not defined Words, terms, or phrases not defined herein shall first mean their definition in the Cable Act then their special meanings or connotations in any industry, business, trade or profession where they commonly carry such special meanings. In the event such special meanings are not common, they shall mean their standard definitions as set forth in commonly used and accepted dictionaries of the English language.

(Ord. No. 95-08, art. II, 4-17-95)