SF 2331

as introduced - 83rd Legislature (2003 - 2004) Posted on 12/15/2009 12:00am

  1.1                          A bill for an act 
  1.2             relating to telecommunications; changing certain cable 
  1.3             franchise procedures and requirements; amending 
  1.4             Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 238.08, subdivision 
  1.5             1, by adding a subdivision. 
  1.6   BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
  1.7      Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 238.08, 
  1.8   subdivision 1, is amended to read: 
  1.9      Subdivision 1.  [REQUIREMENT; CONDITIONS.] (a) A 
  1.10  municipality shall require a franchise or extension permit of 
  1.11  any cable communications system providing service within the 
  1.12  municipality or its franchise authority.  
  1.13     (b) No municipality shall grant an additional franchise for 
  1.14  cable service for an area included in an existing franchise on 
  1.15  terms and conditions more favorable or less burdensome than 
  1.16  those in the existing franchise pertaining to:  (1) the area 
  1.17  served; (2) public, educational, or governmental access 
  1.18  requirements; or (3) franchise fees.  The provisions of this 
  1.19  paragraph shall not apply when the area in which the additional 
  1.20  franchise is being sought is not actually being served by any 
  1.21  existing cable communications company holding a franchise for 
  1.22  the area.  Nothing in this paragraph prevents a municipality 
  1.23  from imposing additional terms and conditions on any additional 
  1.24  franchises.  The grant of an additional franchise may include an 
  1.25  area for cable service similar to that in an existing franchise 
  2.1   or another area that the municipality or its franchise authority 
  2.2   determines is necessary or desirable to reasonably meet the 
  2.3   needs of the municipality or its franchise authority.  
  2.4   Additional franchises must be granted or rejected by a 
  2.5   municipality within 180 days of the notice of application being 
  2.6   published in a newspaper of general circulation unless the date 
  2.7   is extended by mutual agreement of the additional franchise 
  2.8   provider and municipality. 
  2.9      Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 238.08, is 
  2.10  amended by adding a subdivision to read: 
  2.11     Subd. 1a.  [LOCAL PUBLIC, EDUCATIONAL, AND GOVERNMENTAL 
  2.12  ACCESS CHANNELS.] (a) An additional franchise must ensure that 
  2.13  all subscribers receive local public, educational, and 
  2.14  governmental access channels within the additional franchise 
  2.15  provider's franchise area. 
  2.16     (b) An additional franchise must ensure that all 
  2.17  subscribers receive local public, educational, and governmental 
  2.18  access channels and local origination channels as specified in 
  2.19  the existing franchise, and on channels designated within the 
  2.20  existing franchise or actually used for the delivery of public, 
  2.21  educational, and governmental access and local origination.  An 
  2.22  additional franchise provider must not be required to provide 
  2.23  any public, educational, and governmental access or local 
  2.24  origination channels not specified in an existing franchise or 
  2.25  in actual use for those purposes. 
  2.26     (c) An existing franchise provider must be required to 
  2.27  permit an additional franchise provider to connect with its 
  2.28  local public, educational, and governmental access and local 
  2.29  origination channel feeds and provide an additional franchise 
  2.30  provider with the programming on those channels.  An additional 
  2.31  franchise provider and the existing franchise provider may 
  2.32  decide how to accomplish this connection, taking into 
  2.33  consideration the exact physical and technical circumstances of 
  2.34  the systems involved.  An agreement must be negotiated between 
  2.35  the additional franchise provider and the existing franchise 
  2.36  provider specifying these requirements. 
  3.1      The additional franchise provider may proceed with 
  3.2   providing its services before public, educational, and 
  3.3   governmental access negotiations are completed.  If the 
  3.4   additional franchise provider and existing franchise provider 
  3.5   cannot agree on how to accomplish this within three months from 
  3.6   the effective date of the agreement, the municipality or its 
  3.7   franchising authority may adopt a resolution specifying these 
  3.8   requirements.  The costs of connection to the existing franchise 
  3.9   provider's public, educational, and governmental access channel 
  3.10  feed must be borne by the additional franchise provider.  The 
  3.11  municipality or its franchise authority may require that the 
  3.12  connection occur on government property or on public 
  3.13  rights-of-way. 
  3.14     (d) An additional franchise provider shall make financial 
  3.15  contributions that are equivalent annually, on a per customer 
  3.16  basis, to the public, educational, and governmental access 
  3.17  services, facilities, and equipment provided or made available 
  3.18  by the existing franchise provider. 
  3.19     (e) For in-kind contributions, such as cameras and 
  3.20  production studios, an additional franchise provider may satisfy 
  3.21  its requirements by negotiating mutually agreeable terms with 
  3.22  the existing franchise provider and the municipality or its 
  3.23  franchise authority so that public, educational, and 
  3.24  governmental access and local origination services to the 
  3.25  community are improved or increased. 
  3.26     (f) An additional franchise provider must adjust its 
  3.27  systems to comply with new public, educational, and governmental 
  3.28  access and local origination obligations imposed by a cable 
  3.29  franchise renewal.  The additional franchise provider must not, 
  3.30  however, be required to displace other programmers using its 
  3.31  system to accommodate public, educational, and governmental 
  3.32  access and local origination channels.  The additional franchise 
  3.33  provider must comply with the public, educational, and 
  3.34  governmental access and local origination obligations whenever 
  3.35  additional capacity is or becomes available, whether it is due 
  3.36  to increased channel capacity or decreased demand for channel 
  4.1   capacity. 
  4.2      (g) A municipality or its franchising authority may not 
  4.3   impose public, educational, and governmental access or local 
  4.4   origination obligations on the additional franchise provider 
  4.5   that would exceed those imposed on the existing franchise 
  4.6   provider. 
  4.7      Sec. 3.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
  4.8      This act is effective the day following final enactment.