West Sacramento Municipal Code Art. II Definitions

Unless otherwise apparent from the context, certain words and phrases used in this title are defined as set forth in this article. Words not defined in this article shall be given their common and ordinary meanings, consistent with the context in which such words are used and the purpose of this title.

(County code § 11-1.301)

"Act" means the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 (Title VI of the Communications Act of 1934).

(County code § 11-1.302.1; Ord. 03-21 § 1)

"Applicant" means any person or corporation submitting an application for a cable communications franchise.

(County code § 11-1.302)

"Basic cable service" shall be defined as provided in subsection (2) of Section 602 of the Act.

(County code § 11-1.303)

"Broad categories of video programming and other services" means broad categories of video programming (for example, children's programming; local origination programming; community use programming; programming in a particular foreign language; programming which is of primary interest to a particular minority group; news and public affairs programming; and sports programming and related categories) and other services offered by the grantee in its application and incorporated in the franchise ordinance as a commitment of the grantee. "Broad categories of video programming and other services" shall not include any purported commitment to provide specific programming (for example, a particular news service or particular program) or any item of value not utilized in the operation of the cable system.

(County code § 11-1.302.2)

"Cable communications system," "CATV system" or "cable system" shall be defined as provided in subsection (6) of Section 602 of the Act.

(County code § 11-1.304)

"Channel" or "cable channel" shall be defined as provided in subsection (3) of Section 602 of the Act.

(County code § 11-1.305)

"Community use," "community use programming" and "community use channels" mean broad categories of video programming and other services provided by the grantee, other than PEG facilities, PEG funding and PEG programming, for the purposes of noncommercial cablecasts presented by or on behalf of a grantee, the city, individuals and local community nonprofit organizations, which programming and services consist of topics of special interest to the city or elements thereof, including matters of a political, governmental, sociological, religious, educational, cultural, artistic, health-oriented, ethnic, economic, recreational, charitable and philanthropic nature, a significant part of such programming having been locally produced. For the purposes of this section, "noncommercial" means:

A. That the contents of such programming shall not be for the purpose of directly selling any product or service for private gain; and

B. That the programming shall not be associated with or interrupted during presentation by commercial advertising or announcements specifically presented for the purpose of selling products or services for private gain.

(County code § 11-1.306)

"Converter" means an electronic device which converts signals to a frequency not susceptible to interference within the television receiver of a subscriber and, by an appropriate channel selector, also permits a subscriber to view all signals authorized to be received at a designated location.

(County code § 11-1.307)

"County" or "Yolo County" mean the county of Yolo, a political subdivision of the state.

(County code § 11-1.308)

"Dwelling unit" means a residential living unit as distinguished from temporary lodging facilities, such as hotel and motel rooms and dormitories, and shall include single-family residential units and individual apartments, condominium units, mobile homes within mobile home parks and other multiple-family residential units.

(County code § 11-1.311)

"Educational channel" means any channel or portion of a channel on which school, library or governmental educational institutions are the only designated programmers.

(County code § 11-1.312)

"Entertainment services" means "cable service" as defined by subsection (5) of Section 602 of the Act.

(County code § 11-1.313)

"Federal Communications Commission" or "FCC" means the present federal agency of that name as constituted by the Communications Act of 1934, or any successor agency created by the United States Congress and any legally appointed, designated or elected agent or successor thereof.

(County code § 11-1.314)

"Franchise" or "franchise agreement" means any authorization granted under this title in terms of a franchise, privilege, permit or license to construct, operate and maintain a cable communications system within the city limits. Any such authorization, in whatever form granted, shall not mean and include any license or permit required for the privilege of transacting and carrying on a business within the city as required by other laws of the city.

(County code § 11-1.315)

"Franchise documents," with respect to a franchise for a cable communications system issued pursuant to the provisions of this title, means the provisions of this title, the map defining any imposed service area for the franchise as adopted, the provisions of any request for proposals issued pursuant to the provisions of this title in connection with such franchise, the provisions of the application for the franchise submitted by the grantee, the provisions of the ordinance offering the franchise, and the provisions of the certificate of acceptance by the grantee of the franchise.

(County code § 11-1.316)

"Franchise property" means all property retained by the grantee in, along and across streets under the authority of a franchise or business license.

(County code § 11-1.317)

"Government channel" means any channel or portion thereof dedicated to the use of the city or public agencies designated by the city.

(County code § 11-1.318)

"Grantee" means a person or corporation to whom or which a franchise is granted pursuant to this title or any person or corporation to whom or which such franchise thereafter may be lawfully transferred.

(County code § 11-1.319)

"Grantor" means the city of West Sacramento.

(County code § 11-1.320)

A. "Gross revenue" means all cash, credits, property of any kind or nature, or other consideration derived directly or indirectly by a grantee and its affiliates, subsidiaries, parent and any other person or entity in which the grantee has a financial interest or which has a financial interest in the grantee, arising from or attributable to the operation of the cable communications system, including, but not limited to:

1. Revenue from all charges for those services provided on the subscriber network and institutional network (including leased access fees);

2. Revenue from all charges for the insertion of commercial advertisements upon the system;

3. Revenue from all charges for the leased use of studios;

4. Revenue from all charges for the installation, connection and reinstatement of the equipment necessary for the utilization of the system and the provision of subscriber and other services; and

5. The sale, exchange or cablecast of any programming developed for community use or institutional users.

B. "Gross revenue" shall include, valued at retail price levels, the value of any goods, services or other remuneration in nonmonetary form received by the grantee for others described in this section in consideration for the performance by a grantee or others described in this section of any advertising or other service in connection with the cable communications system.

C. "Gross revenue" shall not include:

1. Any taxes on services furnished by the grantee which taxes are imposed directly upon any subscriber or user by the United States, the state or a local agency and collected by the grantee on behalf of the government;

2. Revenue received directly from the grantee by an affiliate, subsidiary or parent, or any other person or entity in which the grantee has a financial interest or which has a financial interest in the grantee, when the revenue received has already been included in reported gross revenue as received by the grantee; and

3. Revenue received by such an affiliate, subsidiary, parent, person or entity when the revenue received is from the sale of national advertising shown on programs distributed on a national basis by the affiliate, subsidiary, parent, person or entity and, but for this exception, that portion of the revenue attributable to broadcasts through the cable communications system would be treated as gross revenue.

(County code § 11-1.321)

"Institutional network" or "institutional user network" means a cable communications network or a specified number of channels on a subscriber network used exclusively for the provision of services to businesses, schools, public agencies or other nonprofit agencies in connection with the ongoing operations of such enterprises.

(County code § 11-1.322)

"Institutional services" means services delivered on the institutional network.

(County code § 11-1.323)

"Institutional user" means a business, public agency, school or nonprofit corporation receiving the institutional services on the institutional user network.

(County code § 11-1.324)

"Interactive services" means services provided to subscribers or users where the subscriber either:

A. Both receives information consisting of either television or other signals and transmits signals generated by the subscriber or user on equipment under his or her control for the purpose of selecting what information shall be transmitted to the subscriber or user for any other purpose; or

B. Transmits signals to any other location for any purpose.

(County code § 11-1.325)

"Leased access" means use on a fee-for-service basis of the subscriber network or institutional network by business enterprises (whether profit, nonprofit or governmental) unaffiliated with the grantee to render services or deliver programming within the city.

(County code § 11-1.326)

"Local origination channel" means any channel or portion of a channel where the grantee is the only designated programmer and which channel is utilized to provide television programs to subscribers.

(County code § 11-1.327)

"Monitoring" means observing a communications signal, or the absence of a signal, where the observer is not the subscriber, whether the signal is observed by visual or electronic means, for any purpose whatsoever; provided, however, "monitoring" shall not include system-wide, non-individually addressed sweeps of the cable communications system for the purposes of verifying system integrity, controlling return path transmissions or billing for pay services.

(County code § 11-1.328)

"Nonbasic service" means any communications service in addition to the basic service.

(County code § 11-1.329)

"Pay channel" or "premium channel" means a channel on which television signals are delivered to subscribers for a special fee or charge to subscribers over and above the regular charges for subscriber service, on a per-program, per-channel or other subscription basis.

(County code § 11-1.330)

"Premium service" means a pay-per-program, pay-per-channel or subscription service, that is, delivered to the subscribers for a fee or charge over and above the regular charges for basic service other than those services provided as a part of a tier of service.

(County code § 11-1.331)

"Public access channel" means any channel or portion of a channel where any member of the general public may be a programmer on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to the appropriate rules formulated by the grantee or its delegate, subject to approval by the grantor.

(County code § 11-1.332)

"Public, educational or governmental access facilities or PEG facilities" means:

A. The channel capacity designated for public, educational or governmental use; and

B. The facilities and equipment for the use of such channel capacity.

(County code § 11-1.332.1)

"Public, educational or governmental access funding or PEG funding" means payments, other than payments for capital costs, which are required by this title to be made by the grantee during the term of the franchise for, or in support of the use of, public, educational or governmental access facilities.

(County code § 11-1.332.2)

"Public, educational or governmental access programming or PEG programming" means public, educational or governmental programming specifically identified in this title as being produced by the use of public, educational or governmental access facilities or public, educational or governmental access funding.

(County code § 11-1.332.3)

"Street" means the surface of and the space above and below any street, road, highway, freeway, utility right-of-way or any other easement which now or hereafter exists for the provision of public and quasipublic services to residential or other properties and in which the city is expressly or impliedly authorized or empowered to permit use for the installation and operation of a cable communications system.

(County code § 11-1.333)

"Subscriber" means a lawful recipient of service from a cable communications system.

(County code § 11-1.334)

"Subscriber network" means a cable communications network which carries television entertainment channels and community use channels (including basic service) and which may carry channels providing commercial or other nonentertainment services and leased access channels.

(County code § 11-1.335)

"Tapping" means the observing of a communications signal exchange where the observer is neither of the communicating parties, whether the exchange is observed by visual or electronic means, for any purpose whatsoever.

(County code § 11-1.336)

"Tier of service" means a grouping of two or more channels of program services on the subscriber network which is marketed by a grantee to subscribers for a single monthly or other charge. "Basic cable service," as defined by Section 4.04.070, shall constitute a single tier of service.

(County code § 11-1.337)

"User" means a party utilizing a cable communications system channel for the purposes of production or the transmission of material to subscribers, as contrasted with the receipt thereof in a subscriber capacity.

(County code § 11-1.338)