A franchisee shall not deny service, deny access or otherwise
discriminate against subscribers, programmers or residents of the municipality
on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex or age.
A franchisee shall not discriminate among persons or
take any retaliatory action against a person because of that person's exercise
of any right it may have under federal, state or local law, nor may the franchisee
require a person to waive such rights as a condition of taking service.
A franchisee shall not deny access or levy different
rates and charges on any group of potential residential cable subscribers
because of the income of the residents of the local area in which such group
resides.
Subject to applicable law and except to the extent the
municipality may waive such a requirement, a franchisee is prohibited from
discriminating in its rates or charges or from granting undue preferences
to any subscriber, potential subscriber or group of subscribers or potential
subscribers; provided, however, that a franchisee may offer temporary, bona
fide promotional discounts in order to attract or maintain subscribers, so
long as such discounts are offered on a nondiscriminatory basis to similar
classes of subscribers throughout the municipality; and a franchisee may offer
discounts for the elderly, the handicapped, not-for-profit persons or organizations,
or the economically disadvantaged, and such other discounts as it is expressly
entitled to provide under federal law, if such discounts are applied in a
uniform and consistent manner. A franchisee shall comply at all times with
all applicable federal, state and municipality laws, and all executive and
administrative orders relating to nondiscrimination.
Information accessibility. Each document required to
be maintained, filed or submitted under the provisions of this chapter or
a franchise agreement, or by federal or state law or regulation, except those
designated as confidential by a franchisee, pursuant to applicable law, is
a public document, available for public inspection and copying at the requester's
expense, at the office of the municipality or a franchisee.
Protection of subscriber privacy is mandatory. A franchisee shall at
all times protect the privacy of subscribers, consistent with Section 631
of the Cable Act, 47 U.S.C. § 551, and other applicable federal,
state and local laws.