AN ACT CONCERNING COMMUNITY ACCESS TELEVISION.

This bill amends several provisions of PA 07-253, which partially deregulated the cable TV industry, primarily regarding community access television. Community access television includes public, educational, and governmental programming. Among other things, the bill imposes additional obligations on companies that have recently entered the video services market and on certain cable TV companies.

The bill imposes several responsibilities on the cable TV company that serves the Bridgeport area and the nonprofit organization that administers community access programming there with regard to such programming. The bill requires the cable TV company serving this area to provide funding to the towns in the area for town-specific educational and governmental access programming. But it appears that this provision has no legal effect (see COMMENT).

Under current law, the Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) must adopt regulations requiring cable TV companies to maintain at least one specially designated, noncommercial community access channel. The bill requires DPUC to amend the regulations to require the cable TV companies to provide all of their subscribers the number of access channels that they provided or made available to their subscribers as of January 1, 2008.

The bill requires any cable TV company or nonprofit organization that provides community access operations that supplied original programming from locally run operations and provided funding to town-specific programming to continue to fund town-specific programming. Any such cable TV company or nonprofit organization must fund the programming in proportion to the funding for the original programming from locally run operations as of January 1, 2008.

Current law prohibits cable TV company employees from serving as the members of local cable TV advisory councils who are appointed by municipal chief elected officials, school boards, and libraries. It also prohibits these employees and employees of video services providers (companies such as AT&T) from serving the new councils established when a cable TV company receives a certificate of cable franchise authority under PA 07-253. The bill eliminates these prohibitions and allows employees of community access providers to serve on these councils.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage, except for the provision on video services providers, which is effective October 1, 2008.

PA 07-253 requires companies that provide video programming but are not cable TV companies to be certified by DPUC. It subjects these “providers” to some of the requirements that apply to cable TV companies, including several regarding community access. But the providers are not required to provide community access studios, as cable TV companies are. Nor are providers subject to other requirements that apply to cable companies, including obtaining a franchise for a specified number of years and being subject to rate regulation.

The bill expands the providers' community access programming responsibilities. It requires providers to transmit community access programming anywhere in their service areas, rather than just within 200 feet of the provider's wire line network. The bill also eliminates a provision requiring that community access programming be submitted to the provider in way that allows it to use its network to transmit the programming without having to alter or change its content. (One provider, AT&T, uses a technology that is different from traditional cable, requiring a reconfiguration of the programming. )

PA 07-253 also allows a cable TV company to apply for the same treatment as the providers if it serves areas outside of its existing franchise territory. (One franchise holder, which has two affiliates in the state, applied for a statewide certificate as a provider under this provision. DPUC issued an order granting the certificate for all of the state, except the applicant's franchise area. In effect, this company is subject to regulation as a provider, even in the areas where its affiliates had previously operated as cable TV companies. )

The bill requires cable TV companies to expand their service areas in order to qualify for the same treatment as providers. The bill specifies that, notwithstanding any DPUC order, no cable TV company or its affiliate may qualify, be certified, or provide service as a provider in any area or municipality where it or its affiliate was providing service as a cable TV company on or before October 1, 2007, unless it (1) files a statement of intention with DPUC by January 1, 2009 to provide video service in an area in which it did not provide service as a cable TV company on or before October 1, 2007 under prior law and (2) by January 1, 2010, begins construction or acquires access to wire line assets needed to create the infrastructure to provide video service in an area where it did not provide video service as a cable TV company on or before October 1, 2007.

PA 07-253 required DPUC to conduct a contested case on various public access issues as they apply to providers and cable TV companies. The bill requires that DPUC begin this proceeding by April 1, 2009. By law, DPUC must report its findings to the Energy and Technology Committee by January 1, 2010.

By law, a nonprofit organization can petition DPUC to assume responsibility for administering community access programming in a franchise area when a cable TV company seeks to renew its franchise. The bill requires a specific nonprofit to consent, under its service provider agreement, to allow a town organization, authority, body, or official in its service area to (1) operate educational and governmental public access channels in the town and (2) engage freely and directly with the cable TV company serving the town to use the company's head-end (transmitting) equipment to disseminate town-specific programming on these channels. The nonprofit must provide this consent in writing within three business days of a written request from the town organization, authority, body, or official. If it does not, DPUC must, upon request of any of these entities or officials, (1) terminate, revoke, or rescind the agreement within 180 days and (2) reopen the application process to secure an access provider for each of the towns in the service territory.

These provisions apply to the nonprofit serving a franchise that meets specified criteria (one with six municipalities, one of which has more than 130,000 residents, i. e. , the Bridgeport area franchise)

The bill requires local cable access advisory boards to mediate customer inquiries or complaints regarding public access television within their service areas. The inquiries or complaints may involve public access service or funding allocations, access to production studios, quality of programming, the availability of town-specific programming, and other public access television issues.

If a party is unsatisfied with the board's proposed resolution of the inquiry or complaint, the party may bring his or her issue to the DPUC. DPUC must adopt regulations establishing how it will handle such issues.

By January 1, 2009, each community access provider must notify residents in its service area regarding contact information for the local cable access advisory board.

PA 07-253 allows cable TV companies to obtain a “certificate of cable franchise authority” once a provider enters its franchise territory. The cable TV company then becomes subject to a form of regulation that is similar to the one that applies to providers. The bill requires the local advisory council of such cable TV companies to review all community access programming that has been the subject of a complaint.

The bill requires the “community antenna television company” (the statutory term for a cable TV company) that serves a specific franchise area to provide funding to the access advisory council in the area. The council must distribute the money for town-specific educational and governmental access programming. The council must also file an annual report with DPUC on the use of the funds. The franchise area is one with six towns, one of which has a population of more than 130,000. The Bridgeport area is the only one that meets the latter criterion. However, this area is served by a company that holds a “certificate of video franchise authority” and thus, under CGS § 16-1, is not a “community antenna television company. ”

Yea

Nay

(03/11/2008)