Yuba City Municipal Code Art. II State Franchise

The current cable franchise fee established within the City, for cable franchises is 5% of gross revenues. This franchise fee percentage amount shall also apply to holders of State franchises under DIVCA.

(§ 2, Ord. 010-07, eff. September 20, 2007)

(a) The current cable franchise designates two channels for Educational and Government programming, that are operated by the City, the City of Maryville, Yuba and Sutter Counties, cooperatively. However, as provided by DIVCA, holders of State franchises under the DIVCA shall provide three EG channels.

(b) All State franchisees shall comply with the provisions of DIVCA related to public, educational and government ("PEG") channels. Without limiting the foregoing, the PEG channels shall all be carried on the basic service tier. To the extent feasible, the PEG channels shall not be separated numerically from other channels carried on the basic service tier and the channel numbers for the PEG channels shall be the same channel numbers used by the incumbent cable operator unless prohibited by Federal law and shall provide picture and sound quality and channel accessibility and location equal to, or substantially equal to, that provided by the incumbent cable providers. After the initial designation of PEG channel numbers, the channel numbers shall not be changed without the agreement of the local entity unless the change is required by Federal law.

(c) The holder of a State franchise shall have three months from the date the City requests the PEG channels to designate the capacity. The City may require the initial activation of two channels, with the designation or a activation of the third channel upon three months' notice from the City. However, the three-month period(s) shall be tolled by any period during which the designation or provision of PEG channel capacity is technically infeasible, including any failure or delay of the incumbent cable operator to take adequate interconnection available, as required by DIVCA. Any State franchise holder who believes that the designation of provision of PEG channel capacity is technically infeasible, shall provide to City, in writing its reasons therefor and its plan for correcting or solving the infeasibility. The City may hold a hearing on the claim of infeasibility and, thereafter, take such action as it deems proper to require the designation and provision of the PEG channels on the State franchise holder's system.

(d) As provided by DIVCA, the holders of State franchises shall provide an additional (or fourth) PEG channel when the non-duplicated locally produced video programming televised on a given channel exceeds 56 hours per week as measured on a quarterly basis. The additional channel shall not be used for any purpose other than to continue programming additional government, education, or public access television.

(§ 2, Ord. 010-07, eff. September 20, 2007)

(a) PEG channel facilities fee ("PEG fee") in the amount of 1% gross revenues of the franchisee, as defined by Public Utilities Code § 5860, per subscriber is hereby established and shall be collected by all State franchisees operating within the City. Use of the PEG fees shall be consistent with applicable State and Federal law. The holder of a State franchise may identify and collect the amount of the PEG fee as a separate line item on the regular bill of each subscriber.

(b) Any franchisee that believes that it is exempt from this PEG fee or subject to a different or lower fee may file a written request for a determination of the applicability of the PEG fee with the City Clerk. Said request shall be filed within 30 days of the effective date of this chapter or within 30 days of commencement of video services by the franchisee within the City, whichever occurs last. Said request shall be heard by the City Council.

(1) Exemptions claims may be based on State or Federal law, or on the provisions of existing franchise agreements.

(2) Additional exemptions for claims for and action on claims for reduction in the PEG fee to be paid to the City may be based on monetary or in kind PEG financial support provided by the claimant based, for example, on agreements between City and the franchisee for support of PEG facilities and equipment and/or institutional network facilities and support provided by the franchisee or licensee.

(§ 2, Ord. 010-07, eff. September 20, 2007)