COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY :

Government Cable TV Channel

CAN WE LEGALLY REQUEST A GOVERNMENT TV CHANNEL?

Under SEC. 611. (47 U.S.C. 531), the West Virginia Code 24D (the West Virginia Cable Television Systems Act) and the provisions of the "Jefferson County Cable T.V. Ordinance" of August 6, 1991, we, the Jefferson County Commission, are authorized to request and be granted channel(s) from "at least four channels designated for shared public access, local government access and educational access." (Ordinance, Section 4-C, Page 11). The Ordinance is in effect until August 6, 2006.

WHAT IS A "GOVERNMENT ACCESS CHANNEL"?

Local "government access channel" is defined as one "used for programming by organs of local government. In most jurisdictions, the franchising authority directly controls these channels." (SOURCE: Cable Television Fact Sheet, Federal Communications Commission, May, 1998, Page 1)

HOW MUCH HELP WILL ADELPHIA PROVIDE IN SETTING IT UP?

Mr. Clint Johnson and Mr. John Nichols, the two most recent general managers of Adelphia Inc. for our area, have said they are bound by our agreement to provide a cable outlet to the point of transmission for this channel and "some" technical support.

(NOTE: If this work location is in a government building in Charles Town, they said they could easily tie us into the highest quality cable line called the "Adelphia Premier Cable Modem," that has the necessary fast "upload speeds.")

WHAT FUNDS DO WE HAVE TO FUND THIS PUBLIC SERVICE?

Under the provisions of 47 U.S.C. 542 and our local Ordinance of August, 1991, the County Commission has received payments on a quarterly basis of five per cent of all subscriber fees collected in the un-incorporated parts of the county, which in fiscal year ending June 30th, 2004, totaled roughly $223,000 (SOURCE: County Expenditures as published in full "The Spirit of Jefferson" November, 2004).

HOW MUCH OUTREACH TO COUNTY RESIDENTS WILL THIS PROVIDE US?

Cable TV provides around-the-clock access (24X7), representing a continuous outgoing information stream about public safety and county government. This compares with a printed news item that is released daily, once a week, or monthly. A 250-word news article (about five paragraphs) is equal to about a minute of reading, or one minute of broadcast time. Optimally TV represents the capacity to transmit 360,000 spoken words a day about public safety and county government

We can design the TV channel to promote similar information simultaneously available on county government web pages. We increase traffic to our web sites significantly thereby and also provide non-cable sources of information to those without cable service.

HOW MANY OF THE COUNTY'S RESIDENTS WOULD BENEFIT FROM THIS CHANNEL?

Subscriber households = 13,000 (SOURCE: Johnson, Nichols at Adelphia)

13,000 of 20,000 households will learn more about their county governments' services and critical public safety information when it becomes needed. Those who don't have cable can still get the same useful information 24X7 in text and image form on the county's agency's web sites.

This degree of penetration is at least triple the outreach of commercial communications mediums in the county. The commercial outlets would continue to focus on the full array of activities in the county, while we would focus non-commercially just on timely matters of public safety and county government. The most subscribers to the largest of the commercially run outlets is a maximum of 5,000 reader households within the county That these mediums do not have the capability of running new information in the very short term is one important reasons why we should include public safety information with our county government information in times of emergency.

IS GOVERNMENT TV OUTREACH NECESSARY?

The county is not fully informed on county government services because it is served by several small sources of information, none that comprehensively cover county government services and public safety issues as its sole objective.

Newcomer households remain generally uninvolved in the community because of long commutes and no easy way to stay informed of community issues and events. The School System's Board members often contend that their broadcast meetings had been very successful for their ends. They report that they reach the Newcomer community that represents about 40 per cent of the total population and increases all the time. They have also said many times their television channel was crucial in getting public support for the impact fee's approval, the excess levy and the bond levy.

County agency heads say it is difficult to quickly get the full number of their many public notices to a broad majority of the public. The county channel would be particularly helpful in publicizing efforts to recruit new volunteers, seek applicants to boards and to fill job openings, to publicize upcoming meetings, along with summarizing the results of meetings just held. The channel has special emergency uses in getting vital information to all the county quickly, in the event of bad snows or floods.

IMPLEMENTATION:

SOURCES of information of needed budget are Rob Perks, Director of media Services, Jefferson County Schools, and Hank Zimmerman, director of the community access channel run by Shentel in Woodstock, VA. Both men launched a channel very similar to the one proposed Both have maintained their channels successfully for about five years each.

BUDGET IN BRIEF

Start up: Up to $25,000 to make operational and one hire at about $25,000
Annual budget: $100,000 all inclusive of equipment and salary.

To begin a channel would cost not more than $25,000 plus a hire of a person of moderate salary level, according to Perks and Zimmerman. This would not include videotaping and televising government meetings and field shoots, archiving past shows or any dubbing services of seen broadcasts.

Start up in Detail

The $25,000 (not more than) buys

1. The BOX - is the computer unit that converts any images, written text, or recorded spoken word into a format pre-designed that is compatible with television broadcast. It is commonly called "Signage software" and is needed to create a screen format like that of CNN or Jefferson County Schools. Avenel, Scala, or Specialized Communications in Hagerstown provide these systems. Specialized Communications also offers extensive training and ongoing tech support

2. BUY RIGHTS: $1,000 to buy copyright cleared music or to make blanket use agreements with area musicians for pre-recorded music for use as background

3. CONTRACT SERVICE PROJECT: $3,000 for person with full video editing suite to:

------a) Acquire free Public Service Announcements;
------b) Create an image/music bed or default screen of several hours length;
------c) Incorporate a "Title Image" tentatively called "Just Jefferson";

The contracted person(s) will integrate digitally these elements into a single continuous and programmed to change background. This is all "read" by the Signage software that broadcasts it into a format of designed sub-screens. It will be used whenever there is no specific program and represents the County's image or persona.

4. CONTRACT SERVICE PROJECT: $4,000

A major cost-savings and innovation we can pursue is to allow each department head to type the desired information directly into this TV system so their announcements, job listings, comments, meeting outcomes automatically appear on television. Like a regular TV program schedule, our channel would list in some fashion the time period when the announcement page appears for a given department: Red Cross, Ambulance, Public Health, Economic Development, Planning Commission. County Commission, etc. We could rotate through all the departments every hour on the hour, for example.

We would contract a specialist in database integration and the creation of web forms. They would:

Annual budget:

An annual budget of a channel including coverage of perhaps seven to ten meetings or events a month would be a total of $100,000 a year including both one salary and equipment purchases. These figures can be explained best by Msrs. Perks and Zimmerman.

- Jim Surkamp
.

(Relevant passages of federal law concerning government channels on television and fee collection laws)

FEDERAL CODE PASSAGES RE
1. GOVERNMENT ACCESS CHANNEL SEC. 611. (47 U.S.C. 531) AND
2. FEE REVENUES (47 U.S.C. 542)

1. SEC. 611. (47 U.S.C. 531) CABLE CHANNELS FOR PUBLIC, EDUCATIONAL, OR GOVERNMENTAL USE.

------(a) A franchising authority may establish requirements in a franchise with respect to the designation or use of channel capacity for public, educational, or governmental use only to the extent provided in this section.

------(b) A franchising authority may in its request for proposals require as part of a franchise, and may require as part of a cable operator's proposal for a franchise renewal, subject to section 626, that channel capacity be designated for public, educational, or governmental use, and channel capacity on institutional networks be designated for educational or governmental use, and may require rules and procedures for the use of the channel capacity designated pursuant to this section.

------(c) A franchising authority may enforce any requirement in any franchise regarding the providing or use of such channel capacity. Such enforcement authority includes the authority to enforce any provisions of the franchise for services, facilities, or equipment proposed by the cable operator which relate to public, educational, or governmental use of channel capacity, whether or not required by the franchising authority pursuant to subsection (b).

------(d) In the case of any franchise under which channel capacity is designated under subsection (b), the franchising authority shall prescribe-

(1) rules and procedures under which the cable operator is permitted to use such channel capacity for the provision of other services if such channel capacity is not being used for the purposes designated, and

(2) rules and procedures under which such permitted use shall cease.

------(e) Subject to section 624(d), a cable operator shall not exercise any editorial control over any public, educational, or governmental use of channel capacity provided pursuant to this section, except a cable operator may refuse to transmit any public access program or portion of a public access program which contains obscenity, indecency, or nudity.

------(f) For purposes of this section, the term "institutional network" means a communication network which is constructed or operated by the cable operator and which is generally available only to subscribers who are not residential subscribers.

2. FEE REVENUES (47 U.S.C. 542)

------(a) Payment under terms of franchise
Subject to the limitation of subsection (b) of this section, any cable operator may be required under the terms of any franchise to pay a franchise fee.

------(b) Amount of fees per annum

For any twelve-month period, the franchise fees paid by a cable operator with respect to any cable system shall not exceed 5 percent of such cable operator's gross revenues derived in such period from the operation of the cable system to provide cable services. For purposes of this section, the 12-month period shall be the 12-month period applicable under the franchise for accounting purposes. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit a franchising authority and a cable operator from agreeing that franchise fees which lawfully could be collected for any such 12-month period shall be paid on a prepaid or deferred basis; except that the sum of the fees paid during the term of the franchise may not exceed the amount, including the time value of money, which would have lawfully been collected if such fees had been paid per annum.

------(c) Itemization of subscriber bills
Each cable operator may identify, consistent with the regulations prescribed by the Commission pursuant to section 543 of this title, as a separate line item on each regular bill of each subscriber, each of the following:

(1) The amount of the total bill assessed as a franchise fee and the identity of the franchising authority to which the fee is paid.

(2) The amount of the total bill assessed to satisfy any requirements imposed on the cable operator by the franchise agreement to support public, educational, or governmental channels or the use of such channels.

(3) The amount of any other fee, tax, assessment, or charge of any kind imposed by any governmental authority on the transaction between the operator and the subscriber.

------(d) Court actions; reflection of costs in rate structures
In any court action under subsection (c) of this section, the franchising authority shall demonstrate that the rate structure reflects all costs of the franchise fees.

------(e) Decreases passed through to subscribers

Any cable operator shall pass through to subscribers the amount of any decrease in a franchise fee.

------(f) Itemization of franchise fee in bill

A cable operator may designate that portion of a subscriber's bill attributable to the franchise fee as a separate item on the bill.
------(g) "Franchise fee" defined

For the purposes of this section-

(1) the term "franchise fee" includes any tax, fee, or assessment of any kind imposed by a franchising authority or other governmental entity on a cable operator or cable subscriber, or both, solely because of their status as such;

(2) the term "franchise fee" does not include-

------(A) any tax, fee, or assessment of general applicability (including any such tax, fee, or assessment imposed on both utilities and cable operators or their services but not including a tax, fee, or assessment which is unduly discriminatory against cable operators or cable subscribers);

------(B) in the case of any franchise in effect on October 30, 1984, payments which are required by the franchise to be made by the cable operator during the term of such franchise for, or in support of the use of, public, educational, or governmental access facilities;

------(C) in the case of any franchise granted after October 30, 1984, capital costs which are required by the franchise to be incurred by the cable operator for public, educational, or governmental access facilities;

------(D) requirements or charges incidental to the awarding or enforcing of the franchise, including payments for bonds, security funds, letters of credit, insurance, indemnification, penalties, or liquidated damages; or

------(E) any fee imposed under title 17.