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October 2007 CFB Minutes

 

October 15, 2007

 MEMBERS PRESENT

Peter Blum , Chairman

MEMBERS ABSENT

Lara Beck, Member
Richard Curry Jr., Member
Loren Heger, Member

 

 OTHERS PRESENT

Rick Maultra, Cable Communications

Al Aldridge, Bright House Networks

Cristy Tirotta, Cable Communications

Buz Nesbit, Bright House Networks

Ken Montgomery, Channel 16

Robert Gobetz, ETC

 

 Chairman Blum calls the October meeting of the Marion County Cable Franchise Board to order. 

 There is no quorum so only the monthly reports will be heard.

 The first order of business is the Agency report submitted by Mr. Maultra, Director of the Cable Communications Agency.

 The Agency has been working with the Indianapolis Fire Departments and Comcast to resolve the remaining bugs for the institutional network (INET) for the battalion stations in Warren and Washington Townships .  Mr. Maultra understands that all stations are now operational in receiving the internal use programming.

 The Cable Agency has been briefing the Information Services Agency and the City's consultant on background for WI-FI initiatives that the City is exploring near and long term.

 The Agency continues to meet with AT&T officials with respect to interconnecting educational and government access to their video platform of UVERSE.  They are hopeful to resolve outstanding issues near term or advance them to a governing body that has the enforcement and jurisdiction on this per the state legislation on video franchising.

 ETC Channel 1's signal has been of poor quality as of late for the end user. ETC 2 has some ghosting issues as well. Comcast reports that they are taking their feed from Bright House and ETC reports that they themselves, are sending out a clean signal. The Agency has spoken with Bright House about this and they have shared it with their engineering department and hopefully will follow up with them.

The Cable Agency attended the IURC's Regulatory Flex report presentation that they are required by the new state franchising law to give before the Indiana Senate. Mr. Maultra's view of the report was that it was underwhelming about competition and pricing.  Moreover, the IURC chair made it clear that the IURC does NOT take video complaints.  He also noted that the IURC had 20% more 'complaints' (generally speaking) than previous but when asked the chair could not respond as to in what areas. More than likely, it would be in the video services area.

The Cable Communications Agency has been serving as a consumer advocate to Indianapolis and Marion County cable subscribers in assisting them in mediating cable complaints on their behalf.

For the month of September, the Cable Agency received a total of 22 complaints for Bright House .  The high areas of complaints were primarily with service interruptions, billing procedures, and telephone service.  For Comcast , the Agency received 27 complaints since the Agency's contact information has been taken off of Comcast 's billing statement.  The high areas of complaints for Comcast were derived from service interruptions and customer service.  The Agency also received 7 complaints for AT&T.

That concludes Mr. Maultra's Agency Report and remarks and he will answer any questions that the Board may have.

The next item on the agenda is the Government Access TV Programming Report with Mr. Ken Montgomery, Manager of Channel 16.

Mr. Montgomery will go over the September 2007 Programming and Production Report that was included in the Board packets.  Channel 16 completed 64 hours and 58 minutes of live and tape delayed meeting coverage for the month of September.

There were 27 hours and 56 minutes of specials and events production for the month of September.  Channel 16 did 1 hour and 54 minutes of In-Kind Production for City-County/Government Agencies and 30 minutes on Series Programs.

The total for new production in all categories was 95 hours and 18 minutes. 

The In-Kind Services were tracked at $8,620 for materials and services for the month of September if Channel 16 would have charged.

 Mr. Montgomery has included an On-Line Archives Usage Report to track how the amount of requests for particular meetings.

 With that, Mr. Montgomery will answer any questions from the Board.

 The next item on the agenda is the Cable Operators Management Reports by Bright House Networks. 

 Buz Nesbit, Division President for Bright House Networks with Al Aldridge, Director of Public Affairs will present the Operator's Management Report that was distributed to the Board. 

 Bright House began the month with 56,558 customers and ended the month with 56,518, giving a system total of 40 customers as a loss for the month of September.

 On the incoming call report, Bright House handled 54,571 calls out of 55,232 calls received.  46,808 calls were answered in 30 seconds or less, which gave a call answer rate of 85.8% and a busy rate of 0.925%, as represented by them.

 On the Complaint Summaries Report, there were 22 complaints from 13 customers. 

 100% of service interruption calls were addressed within 24 hours. 

 There were no planned outages, but there were 25 unplanned outages that affected 2,086 customers.  The system reliability for the month was 99.99%, as reported by Bright House .

 100% of total service calls were addressed within the next business day, unless as otherwise directed by the customer.  There were no appointments kept outside of the 4-hour service window during normal business hours, unless requested by customer.

100% of standard installations were performed within seven business days after the order was placed.

 There was construction done at 403 and 409 West 49th Street during the month of September.

 The Division was a sponsor of the Miracle Mile Parade.  This 2007 revived parade is one that was an Indianapolis staple several years ago.  It passes through the Bright House service area in the southern portion of the City of Indianapolis .  Not only did Bright House provide support funds, they also participated by putting their float in the parade and hosted several employees on the float.

 The Division was again the presenting Sponsor of the Circle City Classic Volunteer Brunch.  This is the 6th year that they have sponsored this important event.  The brunch is an annual event to help recognize the contributions of Indianapolis volunteers who make the Circle City Classic such a successful event.  

 Bright House also sponsored the Annual 100 Black Men Fall fundraiser.  The local 100 Black Men organization assists young men within the Indianapolis community as they pass through to adulthood.

 Several members of the Division attended The Links "BBQ and Grille" event at a BHN sponsored table.  The Links event is an annual roast of local celebrities.  The Links is a community organization that raises funds for community youth scholarship programs.

 The Division was a sponsor of the National Kidney Foundation of Indiana's 2007 "Under the Stars Gala."  The Division's Director of PA was the volunteer Master of Ceremony for the event.  The Division also donated several silent auction items for the event.

 Bright House continues to support various community organizations with volunteers such as, the Indianapolis Public Schools Education Foundation, Gideon's Gate, the Indiana Cable Telecommunications Association, the YMCA, the 100 Black Men of Indianapolis, LEAD, Inc., the Coalition of 100 Black Women, Indianapolis Chapter and the Indiana Hemophilia Foundation, and IPS School 51.

 The next item in the agenda is the ETC Monthly Report submitted by Mr. Robert Gobetz.

 A new program entitled "IPS Hall of Fame" was brought before the Program Review Committee but no action was taken because of a lack of a quorum; it will be presented at the next meeting.

 One of two editions of the IPS program "Parents Empowered" (on mathematics) is completed and started running on ETC 1 in October, with a second (on reading) nearly completed that will run in November.

 IPS TV interns have produced promo spots for the show "IPS Digest," and they will be running soon on ETC 1.

 A new program is being produced by MacAlister Productions with the ETC equipment. The program focuses on the Slovene community in Haughville. An update will be provided in a future report.

 Mr. Gobetz offers to answers any questions that the Board may have.

 There were no public speakers.

 Chairman Blum announces the next Board meeting on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 2:30 PM in room 260 and adjourns this meeting.

 

 

___________________________

Mr. Peter Blum, Chairman

 

___________________________

Ms. Lara Beck, Member

 

___________________________

Mr. Loren Heger, Member

 

___________________________

Mr. Richard Curry Jr.

 

___________________________

Ms. Cristy Tirotta, Recording Secretary

 

 
 

Last Updated: 12/18/2007 |  Print This Page | Email to Friend

 

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