Orange County NC Website
REVISED 09/02/03 <br />2 <br />The proposed agreement incorporates the following key provisions deemed important to <br />the BOCC. <br />Establishes a ten (10) year term. <br />Generally, longer terms are considered for more favorable concessions by the franchise <br />grantee. The negotiating team believes that ten years is reasonable. and appropriate in view of <br />Time Warner's unwillingness to yield on significant PEG, cable system extension and other <br />issues. <br />Requires the grantee to extend services to any household where the number of occupied <br />homes, and homes for which certificates of occupancy been issued, equals at least 18 <br />homes per street mile. <br />Time Warner officials resist inclusion of housing density language and assert that the <br />corporation should only have to extend services when and if it makes good business or <br />economic sense to do so. <br />Requires the grantee to designate a PEG (Public, Educational, Government) access <br />channel for sole use by the County for countywide live and recorded telecasts of Board <br />meetings and other government access programming. <br />Time Warner has not been willing to provide an Orange County government access channel on <br />its system that can be viewed by all County residents. A full time countywide government <br />access channel would be more advantageous than a shared channel with respect to the <br />development and promotion of government services to the greater Orange County community, <br />not just the unincorporated areas. <br />Requires the grantee to design and install equipment to provide signal transportation for <br />County Board meeting telecasts on a designated PEG channel that originate from <br />Southern Human Services Center or the F. Gordon Battle Courtroom. <br />The Board has had a longstanding interest in the "capitalization" of County facilities used for <br />public meetings, particularly those of the legislative process. Time Warner has offered only to <br />address this issue separately or "off line" of the franchise ordinance/agreement. <br />The estimated cost for a meeting room live telecast system has previously been estimated at <br />X145,599 (Report by Bob Sepe to the TJCOG Cable Consortium February 1999) Given the <br />position of Time Warner and given the fact that the design and cost remain a consideration for <br />the Board, it has been suggested that the Board consider appointing a special technical <br />consulting committee -outside of the franchise ordinance - to take up the issue independently <br />and report back its findings and recommendations to the Board Such a committee could be <br />comprised of representatives from the BOCC Time Warner the Cable Advisory Committee <br />Purchasing & Central Services Information Systems and The People's Channel <br />Sets forth the County's option to approve a monthly PEG Access fee upon basic cable <br />service subscribers of 25 cents for years 1-5 of the franchise, and 35 cents for years 6-10. <br />Such a fee would be applied by the grantee to customer bills only upon request by the Board. <br />Fees collected could be used to support PEG Access facilities and equipment. Time Warner <br />has been disinclined to include any subscriber "pass through" fee in an Orange County <br />franchise agreement, although similar language appears in the Carrboro and Hillsborough <br />franchise agreements. Federal law allows the County to require the cable operator provide <br />