General Assembly Raised Bill No. 5509
February Session, 2010 LCO No. 2102
*02102_______ET_*
Referred to Committee on Energy and Technology
Introduced by:
(ET)
General Assembly
Raised Bill No. 5509
February Session, 2010
LCO No. 2102
*02102_______ET_*
Referred to Committee on Energy and Technology
Introduced by:
(ET)
AN ACT CONCERNING PUBLIC ACCESS TELEVISION AND THE DEFINITION OF PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANIES.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. Subsection (c) of section 16-333 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):
(c) The Department of Public Utility Control shall adopt regulations in accordance with chapter 54 requiring each community antenna television company [to maintain at least one] or holder of a certificate of cable franchise authority to provide to all of its subscribers at least the number of specially designated, noncommercial community access [channel] channels, including all town-specific channels, that its predecessor community antenna television company or its affiliate provided or made available to [the public] all of its subscribers in a given area as of January 1, 2008, and establishing minimum standards for the equipment supplied by such company for the community access programming and requirements concerning the availability and operation of such [channel] channels. The regulations adopted pursuant to this section shall not require a community antenna television company or holder of a certificate of cable franchise authority to employ a specific transmission technology or protocol and shall not specify the use of digital, analog or other carriage, provided a community antenna television company or holder of a certificate of cable franchise authority shall not discriminate in the signal quality, functionality or accessibility that it provides on the basis of the commercial or noncommercial status of a channel.
Sec. 2. Subsection (a) of section 16-331h of the 2010 supplement to the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):
(a) Not later than one hundred twenty days after the certified competitive video service provider begins offering service in a designated area pursuant to its certificate of video franchise authority, such provider shall provide capacity over its video service to allow community access programming, in its basic service package, in accordance with the following: (1) The certified competitive video service provider shall provide capacity equal to the number of community access channels currently offered by the incumbent community antenna television company in the given area with the same or better access and video quality provided by the incumbent community antenna television company, provided a certified competitive video service provider shall not discriminate in the signal quality, functionality or accessibility that it provides on the basis of the commercial or noncommercial status of a channel; (2) the certified competitive video service provider shall provide funds for community access operations, as provided in subsection (k) of section 16-331a; (3) the certified competitive video service provider shall provide the transmission of community access programming with connectivity up to the first two hundred feet from the competitive video service provider's activated wireline video programming distribution facility located in the provider's designated service area and shall not provide additional requirements for the creation of any content; and (4) the community access programming shall be submitted to the certified competitive video service provider in a manner or form that is compatible with the technology or protocol utilized by said competitive video service provider to deliver video services over its particular network, and is capable of being accepted and transmitted by the provider, without requirement for additional alteration or change in the content by the provider.
Sec. 3. Subdivision (4) of subsection (a) of section 16-1 of the 2010 supplement to the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):
(4) "Public service company" includes electric, electric distribution, gas, telephone, telegraph, pipeline, sewage, water and community antenna television companies, [and holders of a certificate of cable franchise authority,] owning, leasing, maintaining, operating, managing or controlling plants or parts of plants or equipment, and all express companies having special privileges on railroads within this state, but shall not include telegraph company functions concerning intrastate money order service, towns, cities, boroughs, any municipal corporation or department thereof, whether separately incorporated or not, a private power producer, as defined in section 16-243b, or an exempt wholesale generator, as defined in 15 USC 79z-5a.
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1 from passage 16-333(c)
Sec. 2 from passage 16-331h(a)
Sec. 3 from passage 16-1(a)(4)
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1
from passage
16-333(c)
Sec. 2
from passage
16-331h(a)
Sec. 3
from passage
16-1(a)(4)
Statement of Purpose:
To improve community access television in the state and remove holders of a certificate of cable franchise authority from the definition of a public service company.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]