Big Bear Lake Municipal Code Art. XIII Access Channel Requirements

All franchisees providing cable service in the city shall, if so required by their franchise agreements, interconnect the access channels of their cable system with the access channels of all other local cable systems in order that PEG channel programming can universally be available on the same channel number to all cable subscribers in the city.

(Ord. 98-287 § 2, 1998)

The city may require in its request for proposals as a part of a new franchise, and may require as a part of a cable operator's proposal for a franchise renewal, the following:

A. Two governmental access channels dedicated to use by the city (see Section 5.20.390);

B. One educational access channel dedicated to use by local educational institutions or a person designated by the city;

C. One public access channel; and

D. One regional governmental, and/or one regional educational and/or one regional public access channel, but a franchisee shall not be required to make available such regional PEG access channels unless a consortium of at least four cooperating cities requests one or more of such regional channels, the cooperating cities contribute a portion or all of one or more of their existing or legally accessible (under the triggering terms of their respective franchise agreements) PEG access channels toward the regional channel, and the cooperating cities are able to program such channels at least ten hours a day, five days a week, between the hours of six a.m. and eleven p.m., for twelve consecutive weeks.

(Ord. 98-287 § 2, 1998)

The person designated to operate, maintain and manage the equipment and facilities used to program such public and educational access channels, and to schedule and coordinate the programming for such channels, which person may be the city, an entity designated by the city or, to the extent provided in the franchisee's franchise agreement, the franchisee shall:

A. Bear sole responsibility for the costs and expenses of operating, administering and programming such channels, including without limitation all personnel required in connection with the use of the channels, all facilities, equipment and material necessary for the use of the channels and the carriage of all programming on the channels or the provision of such programming to a franchisee;

B. Subject to review and approval by the city, adopt guidelines for the use of such channel capacity and shall be responsible for the administration of all rules, regulations and procedures pertaining to such channels; and

C. Defend, indemnify and hold harmless a franchisee from and against any and all damages, liabilities and claims arising from or in any manner related to the use of such public and educational access channels.

(Ord. 98-287 § 2, 1998)

The city shall:

A. Bear sole responsibility for the costs and expenses of operating, administering and programming the governmental access channels, including without limitation all personnel required in connection with the use of such channels, all facilities, and material (but not equipment) necessary for the use of such channels and the carriage of all programming on such channels;

B. Adopt guidelines for the use of such channel capacity and shall be responsible for the administration of all rules, regulations and procedures pertaining to such channels; and

C. Defend, indemnify and hold harmless a franchisee from and against any and all damages, liabilities and claims arising from or in any manner related to the use of such governmental access channels.

(Ord. 98-287 § 2, 1998)

A. Unless modified by the franchise agreement, the franchisee will provide and maintain at no cost to the city through the life of the agreement two channels for exclusive city use. All subscribers will receive the city use channels. The franchisee shall designate Channels 3 and 12 for the city's use. The franchisee may not use the assigned city channels without permission of the city.

B. The franchisee shall not interfere with any programming transmitted over the city channels. Franchisee shall assure high technical quality of access channels. The franchisee shall transmit or retransmit in their entirety all access channels and the programming contained on or supplied for such access channels. The signal for each access channel originated by the franchisee shall comply with the FCC's technical standards and shall be of comparable quality with other programming carried over its cable system. For any access channel where the signal is not originated by the franchisee, the franchisee shall not materially degrade such signal as is distributed over its cable system.

(Ord. 98-287 § 2, 1998)

The city or other person responsible for the operation, administration and programming on each such access channel shall in no manner lease, transfer, assign or divest itself of control of the use of such channel(s), or the availability of programming time over such channel(s), for any purpose to any other person, provided that the city may transfer management and control of such channel to a nonprofit person, including without limitation an access corporation, in which case such person shall be subject to each of the provisions of this article.

(Ord. 98-287 § 2, 1998)

The city will exercise control over the operation of the governmental access channels. The city may create or designate one or more persons to be individually or jointly responsible for administering educational and public access channels, including without limitation an access corporation. The city may delegate to such persons responsibility for the management, utilization, programming and scheduling of such educational and public access channels.

(Ord. 98-287 § 2, 1998)

Neither a franchisee, the city, nor any entity or entities designated by the city to administer the use of the educational or public access channels, shall engage in any program censorship or other control of the content of the access programming on the system, except as otherwise required or permitted by law, provided that:

A. The city may exercise all program scheduling and editorial control over programming on the city access channels; and

B. Any person designated or entity created to administer the public and/or educational access channels may exercise control over program scheduling on those public and/or educational access channels.

(Ord. 98-287 § 2, 1998)

All public, educational and governmental access channels shall be a part of franchisee's basic service provided, however, that such a level of basic service exists; if such a level of basic service does not exist and, for example, all channels are provided on an à la carte basis, then all public, educational and governmental access channels shall be provided to subscribers without charge unless federal or state regulations provide to the contrary. The location for access channels, unless otherwise provided in the franchise agreement, shall be in the sole discretion of franchisee, provided that franchisee shall provide city or any person or access corporation designated by the city to operate such channels with at least ninety days' prior written notice of any change in channel assignment for such additional access channels.

(Ord. 98-287 § 2, 1998)

A. The city or other person responsible for the operation, administration and programming of each such access channels shall use such channels exclusively for purposes of access or, if so provided in the franchise agreement, local origination programming, and shall not use such channels for commercial purposes provided, however, that the programming for such channels may include:

1. Fund-raising events or activities;

2

Donor and underwriting announcements reflecting funding provided by for-profit or nonprofit entities for access programming carried over such channels in accordance with the provisions of CFR 73.621 of the FCC's Rules; and

3. To the extent permitted by law, a limited number of commercial announcements comprising no more than six minutes an hour.

B. All revenue received with respect to such fund-raising, donor and underwriting recognition and commercial announcements shall be utilized exclusively for the administration, operation and programming of such channels in connection with access programming. This article shall in no manner preclude the city or other person or persons designated by the city from receiving or securing funding from any other person, whether nonprofit or for-profit, which results in the carriage of programming over such access channels in a manner consistent with the provisions of this article.

(Ord. 98-287 § 2, 1998)

All franchisees shall provide at no cost to the city production equipment for the purpose of programming the city channels. Such equipment shall include: video cameras capable of generating live, on-air broadcasts, amplifiers, microphones, lights, videotape player/recorders, video and audio mixers, switchers, editing equipment, character generator and monitor, and other processing equipment, and other equipment including video graphics and monitors necessary to originate industrial standard quality color television or FM radio composite signals for transmission on the franchisee's cable television system.

(Ord. 98-287 § 2, 1998)