[Amended 8-16-1982 by Ord. No. 82-7; 6-16-1997
by Ord. No. 97-7]
The grantee shall maintain throughout the term of the franchise the
number of channels specified to be initially activated in the franchise agreement.
The grantee shall also activate additional channel capacity as required by
public access or institutional users. The grantee shall continually upgrade
the system's facilities, equipment, and service pursuant to the terms and
conditions of the franchise agreement.
A.
The system shall produce a picture upon each subscriber's
television screen in black and white or color, depending upon whether color
is being telecast and provided that the subscriber's television set is capable
of producing a color picture, which is undistorted and free from ghost images,
without material degradation of color fidelity. The system shall produce a
sound which is undistorted on a properly operating standard receiver of a
subscriber.
B.
The system shall transmit or distribute signals to all
television and radio receivers of all subscribers without causing crossmodulation
in the cables or interfering with other electrical or electronic systems or
the reception of other television or radio receivers.
C.
The system shall at all times meet not less than minimum
FCC technical standards.
D.
The system shall be designed for and operated on a twenty-four-hour-a-day
continuous operation basis.
E.
A response by a grantee to an RFP shall specify the procedure
for initially and subsequently testing the technical capacity of the system.
Representatives of the City may be present during testing. The tests may be
done annually at such times as may be determined by the City, with notice
to the grantee. All expenses for all such tests shall be paid by the grantee.
A.
The grantee shall provide and maintain an operational
two-way system (audio, video and data impulse).
B.
The grantee will not install or permit the installation
of any subscriber premises equipment that will permit transmission of two-way
services utilizing audio, video or digital signals without first obtaining
written permission of the subscriber. This provision is not intended to prohibit
the transmission of signals useful only for the control or measurement of
the system performance, or utility meter reading.
The grantee's proposal may describe, in detail, the rotation of its
head end, hubs, distribution system, studios, equipment and other facilities
and a plan for implementing the construction, utilization and maintenance
of those facilities, including plans for accommodating future growth and changing
needs and desires of the community as determined by the City.
A.
The grantee shall carry broadcast stations in accordance
with FCC rules as from time to time revised.
B.
The grantee's proposal may describe, in detail, the utilization
of converters or other special equipment which subscribers are to receive
and any charges for them.
C.
Unless otherwise provided in its franchise agreement,
the grantee shall designate an emergency channel to be operated by the City.
D.
The grantee shall provide adequate channels for public
access as provided in the franchise agreement. All residential subscribers
who receive all or any part of the total services offered on the system shall
also receive all public access channels at no additional charge. These channels
shall be activated upon system activation and thereafter maintained as needed.
If so provided in the franchise agreement, the grantee shall establish rules
and regulations for the use of community access channels which shall be approved
by the City before implementation and thereafter shall not be altered or amended
without approval of the City. In preparing such rules:
(1)
The grantee shall provide an equal opportunity for use
of access services.
(2)
The grantee shall present a needs assessment of the community
to be served and provide a plan to meet those needs.
(3)
The grantee shall develop a plan to allocate to the City
a reasonable use and fair schedule of channel time and use of equipment and
facilities so that the City can send and receive programming fitted to its
needs. Such plan shall be approved by the City before implementation and thereafter
shall not be altered or amended without approval of the City.
(4)
The grantee shall describe all equipment and facilities
and any charges for their use.
(5)
The grantee shall comply, at a minimum, with the requirements
of the City now or hereafter adopted or determined regarding access channels.
E.
The grantee's proposal may describe in detail all other
channels offered.
The grantee's proposal may designate all publicly owned buildings in
the City (City Hall, Police Department, Fire Department, schools, library,
etc.) and any buildings owned or leased for governmental use by any state,
federal or local government in the City, to which the grantee will provide
service. The provisions for such service shall be described in detail and
shall be provided without charge. The grantee's proposal may include in such
designation plans for existing as well as future publicly owned buildings.
A.
Required. The grantee shall interconnect origination
and access channels of the cable system with any or all other systems in adjacent
areas, pursuant to the terms and conditions of the franchise agreement. Interconnection
of systems may be done by direct cable connection, microwave link, satellite,
or other appropriate method.
B.
Procedure. Upon receiving the directive of the City to
interconnect, the grantee shall immediately initiate negotiations with the
other affected system or systems in order that costs may be shared equitably
for both construction and operation of the interconnection link.
C.
Relief. The grantee may be granted reasonable extensions
of time to interconnect or the City may rescind its order to interconnect
upon petition by the grantee to the City. The City shall grant said request
if it finds that the grantee has negotiated in good faith and has failed to
obtain an approval from the system or systems of the proposed interconnection,
or that the cost of the interconnection would cause an unreasonable or unacceptable
increase in subscriber rates.
D.
Cooperation required. The grantee shall cooperate with
any interconnection corporation, regional interconnection authority or City,
county, state and federal regulatory agency which may be hereafter established
for the purpose of regulating, financing, or otherwise providing for the interconnection
of cable systems beyond the boundaries of the City.
The grantee's proposal may describe the means and manner of providing
community-specific cablecasting over the system and the time of activation
and points of delivery.
Unless otherwise provided in its franchise agreement, the grantee shall
design and construct a system so that A and B cables (serving residential
and institutional users) accommodate interactive data communications and so
that the total network transmission time is less than one-tenth of a second.
Further, the system shall accommodate interactive communications of point-to-point,
point-to-multipoint, and multipoint-to-multipoint communications between subscribers
or potential subscribers.
Unless otherwise provided in its franchise agreement, in case of any
emergency or disaster, the grantee shall make its entire system available,
without charge, to the City or to any other governmental or civil defense
agency that the City may designate. The system shall be engineered to provide
an audio alert system to allow authorized officials to override automatically
the audio signals on all channels and to transmit and report emergency information.
The system shall also have the capability for visual transmission of emergency
messages.