MARCH 16, 1998

City-County Building
Indianapolis, Indiana

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Carlton Curry, Chairman
Steve Nelson, Member
Stuart Rhodes, Member
Charlie Hiltunen, Member

MEMBERS ABSENT:

David Leonard, Member

OTHER PRESENT

Chairman Curry brought the meeting to order at 2:30 P.M.

 The first agenda item was the approval of minutes from the Cable Board’s February 24, 1998, meeting. Motion was made by Mr. Hiltunen, seconded by Mr. Nelson, to approve the minutes of the Board’s February 24, 1998 Board Meeting. Motion carried unanimously.

The next item on the agenda was the status of Comcast’s outstanding audit issues. Ms. Piety stated that she did not have an update on this agenda item.

The next item on the agenda was the Status Report-Comcast and Time Warner rate review. Ms. Piety stated that she had received and reviewed preliminary reports from Mr. Karrison concerning the rate review. Mr. Karrison is putting the reports in final form. Ms. Piety stated she expects to have the reports at the next Board meeting, Also in regard to re-adoption of the local rate regulations, the proper notices have been published, and the regulations will be in effect before the next Board meeting.

The next agenda item on the agenda was the Cable Agency Report. Mr. Maultra presented the Cable Agency report which highlighted the events that have taken place at the Cable Agency in the last month. The Cable Agency received the necessary documentation from Time Warner to submit the 329 rate complaint filing to the FCC. The Cable Agency has performed some major retooling with its website and continues to do so. Mr. Maultra acknowledged Craig Gillett with the webserver’s office for his considerable contributions in that endeavor.

The Agency has been working with the Parks Department on their request for a public service drop at their Douglas Facility. Time Warner told the Parks Department that it believes the facility is not a local governmental facility, but rather a not-for-profit- entity that would not be entitled to free cable service. The representative from Parks pursuing this matter thinks otherwise, and Mr. Maultra asked him to contact Shary Hoffman-Meadows to present his case.

The Agency has had talks with ETC to ascertain the poor quality of signal on the EPS Channel in the Comcast area and has offered the Agency’s assistance to resolve the matter. The Agency has called in to the IPS Superintendent concerning the televising of IPS Board meetings and to offer any assistance in this matter. Finally, the Cable Agency has worked with both cable operators in mediating a number of customer cable problems. Comcast had 47 complaints for the month. Time Warner had 27 complaints for the month.

The next item on the agenda was the Channel 16 Programming Report presented by Mr. Maultra, due to Mr. Montgomery’s absence. Mr. Maultra highlighted some of the activities of Channel 16 for the month of February. In February there were 45 hours and 9 minutes of live meeting coverage. Tape Delay meetings totaled 4 hours and 59 minutes. Special and Events Production totaled 9 hours and 23 minutes.

In the area of In-Kind Production, Channel 16 had 6 hours and 33 minutes of production. In references to Series Programming, Channel 16 had 7 hours of production. The total for the month of February for all productions was 73 hours and 4 minutes. Interactive Information Usage totaled 908 calls for the month.

Mr. Maultra stated that Channel 16 will be working with the Library Foundation and putting together a public service announcement and running that on Channel 16 to solicit funds for the Library Foundation. In addition, Channel 16 is looking to put together a touring video for the Library Foundation as well.

The next item on the agenda was the Cable Operators’ Reports. Mr. Apple presented Comcast’s report. Mr. Apple stated that in February Comcast lost 184 customers from its full basic service package. Also, Comcast lost 1,400 premium customers in the month of February; however, Comcast picked up nearly 500 pay per view customers. For incoming calls Comcast had 72,614 calls; 82% of those were answered in 30 seconds or less. Comcast had 64 outages for the month, 15 of them were planned, approximately 16,773 customers were affected, and the average outage was about 2 hours in length. Comcast received and scheduled 2,538 calls completed 2,603; 65.2% were completed within 24 hours; 99.3% were completed in 36 hours. Comcast scheduled 2,968 installations and completed 2,691 of those scheduled.

Mr. Apple stated that during the month of February, Comcast had 305 hours of community interest programming aired on channel 50. WAV-53 had 140 hours of locally produced programming. Comcast aired and produced 11 public service announcements. Community events and Sponsorships, on February 13, Comcast hosted a Cable in the Classroom workshop for 100 elementary teachers and school administrators from the Warren Township Schools system. The workshop was held at Grassy Creek Elementary School. Also, on February 27, Comcast taped "Newsmakers" segments to air in March. Guests were: Jennifer Pferrer, Race for the Cure; Father Boniface Hardin, Martin University; Helen Small, American Pianists Association; and Judith Ward Duncan, Muscular Dystrophy Foundation.

Charlie Hiltunen arrived.

Ms. Shary Hoffman-Meadows presented the Cable Operator’s Management Report for Time Warner. Ms. Hoffman stated that Time Warner has noticed a slight growth in its number of customers. Time Warner completed 4,261 installs for the month of February. Incoming calls total for the month was 47,502; answering 91.8% within 30 seconds or less. Service calls total was up for the month of February with 3,592 calls, 99.0% of those calls completed within 36 hours. Ms. Hoffman reported that the percentage of planned outages was 100%.

Time Warner has added three apartment units as their construction report states. Time Warner west hub is completed in reference to the upgrade status, and Time Warner expects to have the downtown area upgraded soon. Community Involvement report supports a lot of different community events and programming in the year including producing a Cable in the Classroom promotional video and sponsoring a sports celebrity for an appearance at the Circle City Classic.

Mr. Hiltunen asked Ms. Hoffman to briefly summarize the Cable in the Classroom program.

Ms. Hoffman stated the cable industry provides numerous hours of commercial-free programming each month to educators through the cable wire, and Time Warner is doing workshops and encouraging the teachers who are participating with Time Warner to apply for grants that are provided by the programmers.

Mr. Curry asked Ms. Hoffman how Time Warner was able to staff its call center 1,344 hours in one month.

Ms. Hoffman stated the number of hours is determined per employee and per phone line; however, she will double check that.

The next item on the agenda was the ETC Report. Mr. Donaldson presented the ETC report. New programs for late March/April 1998: IUPUI: High Technology Task Force Town Meeting; Integrating Technology into the ABS/GED Curriculum; IPS: "Yours and Our"; and a local workshop for teachers titled "Beyond Super Heroes". Mr. Donaldson also stated in reference to Operations Update that IFD has hired an Intern who is coordinating all scheduling for the public safety programs on EPS.

Also ETC is finalizing the 1997/98 Annual Report for presentation upon the Cable Franchise Board’s request. As to ETC Organizational Structure, Mr. Donaldson stated that in light of discussions undertaken during previous CFB Meetings, such as those regarding coverage of IPS Board Meetings, ETC would like to clear up any confusion regarding the structure in which it operates. ETC is a partnership of formal educational institutions charged with the task of operating the educational access channels on Time Warner and Comcast Cablevision. ETC does not have full time staff resources, and is managed by elected representatives.

ETC is operated by paid student interns enrolled in local educational institutions, ETC facilitates program production, but does not have dedicated studios. ETC approves or disapproves submitted programming requests based on documented policy, but does not directly influence member institutions decision making in the development of their proposals.

Finally, Mr. Donaldson stated in regards to EPS signal and programming quality, that EPS programming is divided evenly between Public Safety Programs and formal Education Programs during the week. Public Safety programs are produced by the Indianapolis Fire Department and delivered via videotapes. Educational programs are provided via satellite feed from the Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education.

Mr. Donaldson stated the IPSE programming is a compressed digital signal with artifacts resembling "tiling" occasionally imbedded in the signal. Certain educational institutions originated using compressed digital facilities, adding to the visible compression algorithms and impacting the overall signal quality. There have been recent complaints of signal quality of EPS limited to Comcast Cablevision (Channel 13). The signal is described as "washed out" with "noisy audio." The signal path for EPS originates at IUPUI, is first linked to Time Warner, and finally interconnected to Comcast Cablevision. Mr. Donaldson stated the IUPUI, Time Warner, and Comcast engineering personnel have been most accommodating in their efforts to correct this issue.

As a solution, ETC is proposing the EPS channel be taken off-line for several hours at a time when it will least impact programming. At that time, engineers from all three organizations will conduct a systematic signal check, beginning at the point of origination and trace the signal to each point along the stream to verify signal integrity throughout. ETC is also requesting the Cable Franchise Board’s support if necessary, in requesting Comcast Cablevision reassign the current channel, Channel 13, and eliminate the potential of signal ingress from broadcast station WTHR, Channel 13.

Mr. Nelson stated he agreed with Mr. Donaldson’s report that there is a signal problem on Channel 13.

Mr. Donaldson stated that results from running tests to find out where the signal problem is should be completed next month.

Mr. Hiltunen asked whether to programming is the problem on the Educational side or the Public Safety side.

Mr. Donaldson responded that the problem is primarily on the Educational side.

Mr. Hiltunen asked what percentage of the programming on the EDPS channel is below broadcast quality.

Mr. Donaldson stated that more than 50% of the programming is below broadcast quality.

Mr. Hiltunen asked if programming being below broadcast quality would be contribute to Channel 13’s signal problem.

Mr. Donaldson stated probably not.

Mr. Curry asked whether the signal issue on the EPS Channel, 13, was in the Comcast area only and not Time Warner.

Mr. Donaldson stated yes.

Under Old Business, Ms. Piety addressed Time Warner Equipment Rate, stating that the Board had asked her to respond to a subscriber question. Ms. Piety requested Time Warner Form 1205 which deal with Time Warner equipment and installation rates for the years since Time Warner entered its Social Contract with the FCC, which was in November of 1995. Ms. Piety stated the Social Contract permits Time Warner to file with the FCC equipment and installation rates by geographic region rather than on a system by system basis. In reviewing these forms the local franchising authority is limited to comparing the permitted rate to the actual rate. As long as the actual rate is equal to or less then the permitted rate, then Time Warner is in compliance with its Social Contract. The rate forms for 1996, 1997, and 1998 show actual equipment and installation rates at or below the permitted rates for each of those years.

Under New Business, Mr. Curry stated that the next Board Meeting will be held at Time Warner Cable at 3030 Roosevelt Avenue, Indianapolis IN 46218 at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, April 20, 1998

Mr. Curry asked for public comment. There was none.

There being no other business to come before the Board, Mr. Curry adjourned the meeting at 3:45 P.M.

_______________________________
Mr. Carlton Curry, Chair

_______________________________
Mr. Charles Hiltunen,Member

______absent____________________
Mr. David Leonard, Member

________________________________
Mr. Steve Nelson, Member

________________________________
Mr. Stuart Rhodes, Member

 

 ATTEST:                

________________________________
Ms. Janise L. Winston, Recording Secretary