HB 1511

1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to cable and video services; amending s.
3	610.109, F.S.; deleting language requiring a poll of
4	subscribers to allow the addition of access channels under
5	certain conditions; increasing the number of access
6	channels to be provided by a certificateholder; deleting
7	language relating to the usage of channels; deleting
8	language relating to hours of access by such channels;
9	providing for the placement and manner in which such
10	channels must be carried on a certificateholder's basic
11	cable or video service; providing an effective date.
12
13	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
14
15	Section 1.  Section 610.109, Florida Statutes, is amended
16	to read:
17	610.109  Public, educational, and governmental access
18	channels.--
19	(1)  A certificateholder, not later than 180 days following
20	a request by a municipality or county within whose jurisdiction
21	the certificateholder is providing cable or video service, shall
22	designate a sufficient amount of capacity on its network to
23	allow the provision of public, educational, and governmental
24	access channels for noncommercial programming as set forth in
25	this section.
26	(2)  A certificateholder shall designate a sufficient
27	amount of capacity on its network to allow the provision of the
28	same number of public, educational, and governmental access
29	channels or their functional equivalent that a municipality or
30	county has activated under the incumbent cable or video service
31	provider's franchise agreement as of July 1, 2007. For the
32	purposes of this section, a public, educational, or governmental
33	channel is deemed activated if the channel is being used for
34	public, educational, or governmental programming within the
35	municipality or county. The municipality or county may request
36	additional channels or their functional equivalent permitted
37	under the incumbent cable or video service provider's franchise
38	agreement as of July 1, 2007. Upon the expiration of the
39	incumbent cable or video service provider's franchise agreement
40	or within 6 months after a request of a municipality or county
41	for an additional channel or its functional equivalent, a public
42	access channel or capacity equivalent may be furnished after a
43	polling of all subscribers of the cable or video service in
44	their service area. The usage of one public access channel or
45	capacity equivalent shall be determined by a majority of all the
46	provider's subscribers in the jurisdiction. The video or cable
47	service subscribers must be provided with clear, plain language
48	informing them that public access is unfiltered programming and
49	may contain adult content.
50	(3)  If a municipality or county did not have public,
51	educational, or governmental access channels activated under the
52	incumbent cable or video service provider's franchise agreement
53	as of July 1, 2007, after the expiration date of the incumbent
54	cable or video service provider's franchise agreement and within
55	6 months after a request by the municipality or county within
56	whose jurisdiction a certificateholder is providing cable or
57	video service, the certificateholder shall furnish up to three
58	two public, educational, or governmental channels or their
59	functional equivalent. The usage of the channels or their
60	functional equivalent shall be determined by a majority of all
61	the video service provider's subscribers in the jurisdiction in
62	order of preference of all video service subscribers. Cable or
63	video service subscribers must be provided with clear, plain
64	language informing them that public access is unfiltered
65	programming and contains adult content.
66	(4)  If a municipality or county has not used the number of
67	access channels or their functional equivalent permitted by
68	subsection (3), access to the additional channels or their
69	functional equivalent allowed in subsection (3) shall be
70	provided upon 6 months' written notice.
71	(5)  A public, educational, or governmental access channel
72	authorized by this section is deemed activated and substantially
73	used if the channel is being used for public, educational, or
74	governmental access programming within the municipality or
75	county for at least 10 hours per day on average, of which at
76	least 5 hours must be nonrepeat programming and as measured on a
77	quarterly basis. Static information screens or bulletin-board
78	programming shall not count toward this 10-hour requirement. If
79	the applicable access channel does not meet this utilization
80	criterion, the video service provider shall notify the
81	applicable access provider in writing of this failure. If the
82	access provider fails to meet this utilization criterion in the
83	subsequent quarter, the cable or video service provider may
84	reprogram the channel at its discretion. The cable or video
85	service provider shall work in good faith with the access
86	provider to attempt to provide future carriage of the applicable
87	access channel within the limits of this section if the access
88	provider can make reasonable assurances that its future
89	programming will meet the utilization criteria set out in this
90	subsection.
91	(5)(6)  Public, educational, and governmental access
92	channels shall all be carried on the certificateholder's basic
93	cable or video service offerings or tiers. The public,
94	educational, and governmental access channels may not be
95	separated numerically from other channels carried on the
96	certificateholder's basic cable or video service offerings or
97	tiers, and the channel numbers for the public, educational, and
98	governmental access channels shall be the same channel numbers
99	used by the incumbent cable operator unless prohibited by
100	federal law. After the initial designation of public,
101	educational, and governmental access channel numbers, the
102	channel numbers may not be changed without agreement of the
103	local unit of government or the entity to which the local unit
104	of government has assigned responsibility for managing the
105	public, educational, and governmental access channels unless the
106	change is required by federal law. Each channel shall be capable
107	of carrying an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC)
108	television signal. A cable or video service provider may locate
109	any public, educational, or governmental access channel on its
110	lowest digital tier of service offered to the provider's
111	subscribers. A cable or video service provider must notify its
112	customers and the applicable municipality or county at least 120
113	days prior to relocating the applicable public, educational, or
114	governmental access channel.
115	(6)(7)  The operation of any public, educational, or
116	governmental access channel or its functional equivalent
117	provided under this section shall be the responsibility of the
118	municipality or county receiving the benefit of such channel or
119	its functional equivalent, and a certificateholder bears only
120	the responsibility for the transmission of such channel content.
121	A certificateholder shall be responsible for the cost of
122	providing the connectivity to one origination point for each
123	public, educational, or governmental access channel up to 200
124	feet from the certificateholder's activated video service
125	distribution plant.
126	(7)(8)  The municipality or county shall ensure that all
127	transmissions, content, or programming to be transmitted over a
128	channel or facility by a certificateholder are provided or
129	submitted to the cable or video service provider in a manner or
130	form that is capable of being accepted and transmitted by a
131	provider without any requirement for additional alteration or
132	change in the content by the provider, over the particular
133	network of the cable or video service provider, which is
134	compatible with the technology or protocol used by the cable or
135	video service provider to deliver services. To the extent that a
136	public, educational, or governmental channel content provider
137	has authority, the delivery of public, educational, or
138	governmental content to a certificateholder constitutes
139	authorization for the certificateholder to carry such content,
140	including, at the provider's option, authorization to carry the
141	content beyond the jurisdictional boundaries of the municipality
142	or county.
143	(8)(9)  Where technically feasible, a certificateholder and
144	an incumbent cable service provider shall use reasonable efforts
145	to interconnect their networks for the purpose of providing
146	public, educational, and governmental programming.
147	Interconnection may be accomplished by direct cable, microwave
148	link, satellite, or other reasonable method of connection.
149	Certificateholders and incumbent cable service providers shall
150	negotiate in good faith, and incumbent cable service providers
151	may not withhold interconnection of public, educational, and
152	governmental channels. The requesting party shall bear the cost
153	of such interconnection.
154	(9)(10)  A certificateholder is not required to
155	interconnect for, or otherwise to transmit, public, educational,
156	and governmental content that is branded with the logo, name, or
157	other identifying marks of another cable or video service
158	provider, and a municipality or county may require a cable or
159	video service provider to remove its logo, name, or other
160	identifying marks from public, educational, and governmental
161	content that is to be made available to another provider. This
162	subsection does not apply to the logo, name, or other
163	identifying marks of the public, educational, or governmental
164	programmer or producer.
165	(10)(11)  A municipality or county that has activated at
166	least one public, educational, or governmental access channel
167	pursuant to this section may require cable or video service
168	providers to remit public, educational, and governmental support
169	contributions in an amount equal to a lump-sum or recurring per-
170	subscriber funding obligation to support public, educational,
171	and governmental access channels, or other related costs as
172	provided for in the incumbent's franchise that exists prior to
173	July 1, 2007, until the expiration date of the incumbent cable
174	or video service provider's franchise agreement. Any prospective
175	lump-sum payment shall be made on an equivalent per-subscriber
176	basis calculated as follows: the amount of prospective funding
177	obligations divided by the number of subscribers being served by
178	the incumbent cable or video service provider at the time of
179	payment, divided by the number of months remaining in the
180	incumbent cable or video service provider's franchise equals the
181	monthly per-subscriber amount to be paid by the
182	certificateholder. The obligations set forth in this subsection
183	apply until the earlier of the expiration date of the incumbent
184	cable or video service provider's franchise agreement or July 1,
185	2012. For purposes of this subsection, an incumbent cable or
186	video service provider is the service provider serving the
187	largest number of subscribers as of July 1, 2007.
188	(11)(12)  A court of competent jurisdiction shall have
189	exclusive jurisdiction to enforce any requirement under this
190	section.
191	Section 2.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2009.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.