§ 12-15. Minimum facilities and services.

(A)

The following minimum requirements for facilities and services apply to all franchises. The County may require in a franchise agreement that a franchisee exceed these minimum requirements where it determines, under circumstances existing at the time of a grant of the application, that the additional requirements are necessary to meet the County's future cable related needs and interests or to serve the public interest. The franchisee shall be responsible for obtaining all necessary governmental and private approvals to satisfy such minimum requirements. County personnel shall not be responsible for submitting information to the franchisee to ensure that all such approvals are obtained.

(1)

Any cable system that commences construction, including but not limited to initial construction, rebuild, upgrade, or reconstruction, after September 15, 1998, shall have a minimum capacity of not less than fifty (50) video channels available. A franchise agreement may require a larger minimum channel capacity.

(2)

The County may require that a franchisee provide access channels, facilities and other support for educational, governmental and/or public use consistent with Section 12-18.

(3)

At the request of the County Administrator, a franchisee shall cablecast Board meetings on a governmental access channel live to all of its subscribers located within Orange County.

(4)

A franchisee shall provide leased access channels as required by federal law.

(5)

At the request of the County Administrator, a franchisee shall provide at least one cable television service outlet and, when available on its system, at least one additional outlet equipped for on-line access to all County buildings and all public schools that are passed by its cable system and are capable of standard installation, at no cost to the County or the public schools involved, and shall charge no more than its time and material costs for providing any such additional service outlets to such facilities.

(6)

(a)

At the request of the County Administrator, a franchisee shall interconnect its cable system with all other cable systems operating within Orange County and, to the extent required by law, with other providers of video programming (i) through independent interconnection or (ii) through connection to a central facility designated by the County. Said interconnection shall be completed and activated no later than six (6) months after the date of receipt of notice by the County Administrator unless the Administrator has extended the deadline or waived this obligation upon a showing by a Franchisee of non-feasibility.

(b)

Any application for an initial franchise or a renewal of an existing franchise which may not have interconnected shall include a proposal for interconnection.

(c)

The costs of such interconnection shall be equitably distributed among the franchisee and the other systems linked based on the benefits received by each affected franchise and its respective subscribers.

(7)

Any application for an initial franchise or a renewal of an existing franchise shall include a proposal to construct or operate an Institutional Network (I-Net), a proposal for financial support for an I-Net, or a proposal for in-kind support for an I-Net. The County may accept, modify or reject any such proposal. The proposal ultimately accepted by the Board shall be incorporated into the franchise agreement. To the extent there are costs associated with I-Net, such costs shall be borne by the users of the I-Net.

(8)

To the extent required by federal law, a franchisee shall make available to its subscribers equipment capable of decoding closed circuit captioning information for the hearing impaired. A franchisee may impose a reasonable charge for such equipment.

(9)

Standard installation shall consist of a drop, not exceeding one hundred twenty five (125) feet from the cable plant to the nearest part of a subscriber's residence.

(10)

Cable which is installed underground in public right-of-way shall be installed a minimum depth of thirty (30) inches.

(11)

A franchisee shall provide and maintain "general" standby power for each headend. "Battery" standby power for its system plant shall also be available to provide for up to two (2) hours of continuous operation of the system.

(12)

To the extent permitted by applicable law, a franchisee shall incorporate into its cable system the capability for the County in times of emergency to override the audio portion of all channels simultaneously, and the franchisee shall designate a channel (it may be the governmental access channel) which shall be used for emergency broadcasts of both audio and video. The franchisee shall also be responsible for ensuring that its cable system is designed, constructed and maintained to ensure compliance with all applicable federal laws and regulations regarding the emergency alert systems.

(13)

The cable system and all equipment shall be designed and rated for twenty-four (24) hour seven (7) day-a-week continuous operation.

(14)

The signals produced by the cable system shall be of high quality throughout the cable system with no difference perceptible to viewers regardless of whether they are in close proximity to the headend or at the furthest extension of the trunk line.

(B)

Unless a franchise agreement provides otherwise, and subject to Section 12-17, a franchisee shall make cable service available to every dwelling within the franchisee's service area or the franchisee's designated service area as defined in a franchise agreement.

(Ord. No. 98-20, § 1, 9-15-98; Ord. No. 2001-25, § 4, 12-18-01)