May 18, 1998

City County Building
Indianapolis IN 46254

MEMBERS PRESENT:

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

OTHER PRESENT:

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

SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION

The first agenda item was the approval of minutes from the Cable Board’s April 20, 1998, meeting. Motion was made by Mr. Leonard, seconded by Mr. Nelson, to approve the minutes of the Board’s April 20, 1998 Board Meeting. Motion carried unanimously.

The next item on the agenda was the Comcast draft settlement letter. Ms. Piety stated she sent a draft letter to David Wilson of Comcast as a result of a meeting that Ms. Piety and Chairman Curry had with Comcast representatives during the month of April. Ms. Piety stated this letter was an attempt to reduce to writing some of the discussions in order to settle the outstanding franchise fee audits between Comcast and the City of Indianapolis.

Ms. Piety stated the terms of the letter are: 1) Comcast would agree to pay the City $55,000 in full and complete settlement of amounts which may be due under Comcast’s contract for the years 1990 through and including 1994; 2) the Board agrees that Comcast may exclude advertising agency commissions from gross revenues for the purpose of calculating the franchise fee due the City under Comcast’s cable franchise so long as, and only so long as, Comcast does not receive such amounts and such amounts are not reflected in Comcast’s financial statements as revenues; 3) the Board and Comcast agree that Fifty Thousand Five Hundred Eighty-One Dollars ($50,581.00) of the settlement amount are to be considered franchise fees fee amount.

Comcast agrees to exclude the Fee Amount from its cable service rates and not to pass-through the Fee Amount to its subscribers in its cable service rates until the earlier of November 1, 1999, or until the Federal Communications Commission or a court finally decides the circumstances under which additional franchise fees that may be due as a result of the Dallas Decision may be passed through to cable subscribers. If Comcast includes the Fee Amount in its cable service rates and passes it through to its subscribers after November 1, 1999, and before a final determination is available as to the treatment of additional franchise fees that may be due as a result of the Dallas Decision, Comcast agrees to adjust its cable service rates in accordance with such final determination after it is available; 4) Comcast’s payment of amounts pursuant to this Agreement does not constitute an admission of noncompliance or wrongdoing with respect to any issues raised by the fee audits and other noncompliance issues arising out of or related to Comcast’s franchise agreement or the renewal of that agreement with the City.

Mr. Curry requested Ms. Piety to formalize the letter and ask for a reply from Comcast.

Motion was made for the Board to adopt the draft settlement letter as written and to seek a response from Comcast. Motion carried unanimously.

Mr. Curry asked Mr. Wilson if Comcast could respond to the draft settlement letter at June 15^th board meeting.

Mr. Wilson stated yes.

The next item on the agenda was the adoption of Time Warner Rate Review. Ms. Piety stated the Board had received a copy of the proposed rate order for Time Warner’s basic tier rate for 1998. Ms. Piety stated the exhibits to the order are not complete, because the Board has not received a final report from Crowe Chizek concerning its review of Time Warner Form 1240. Ms. Piety suggested that rather than adopting a rate order without Crowe Chizek’s report that the Board take the information under advisement and allow Crowe Chizek to send the Board its final report. Also, this will allow Time Warner to make any comments regarding the proposed order prior to the Board taking final action in June.

Mr. Curry stated that by the Board consent this agenda item will be continued to the June Board meeting.

Mr. Hiltunen joined the 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. Peggy Piety and the Cable Agency participated at the April 24^th meeting of the Indiana Association of Cities and Town’s Telecommunications Task Force. During that meeting it was discussed what should be the final draft of the Model Right of Way Ordinance. H.J. Uimbaugh & Associates, a CPA group, has offered to do a right-of-way management cost analysis of what factors are determined in management costs of the public right of way, both direct and indirect. They have offered to perform this study free of cost.

The Cable Agency has continued to support requests by the City-County Council to gather information regarding the preparation of the zoning ordinance on personal communication services towers. The Agency has researched and gathered various documentation as it pertains to co-location of facilities and the camouflaging of those facilities in hopes of lessening the proliferation of the towers and perhaps make them more attractive in Marion County. The Cable Agency has been approached by the President of NATOA to head up a legislative and FCC affairs committee for NATOA. The agency agreed to talk about it at length after the conclusion of the National Cable Television Association Conference that the Cable Agency attended.

Mr. Maultra stated in regards to the Agency filing with the FCC on possible pre-emption of local and state jurisdiction for broadcast tower facility placement, the Agency has included a response that was received from Senator Dan Coats’ office. The Agency reviewed the latest draft of Proposal #603 pertaining to Marion County’s Public Right of Ways and offered no additional comments. Finally, the Cable Agency has worked with both cable operators in mediating a number of customer cable problems with a summary and breakdown of the problems included with the Agency’s report.

Mr. Curry stated with respect to the approach from NATOA, regarding a leadership role in legislative and FCC affairs, Mr. Maultra is trying to find out what sort of obligations that might have. Mr. Curry stated that there might be 1 or 2 trips in addition to some casual time for this. Mr. Curry stated that this year’s travel budget should be sufficient let the Cable Agency handle this legislative and FCC role.

Mr. Leonard asked how would this benefit the City directly.

Mr. Rhodes joined the meeting.

Mr. Maultra stated his involvement in NATOA filings with the FCC, including the issue of sunsetting of cable rate regulation would allow the Agency to weigh in at the FCC to make municipalities’ concerns known to them. Mr. Maultra also stated some of the orders before the FCC that he maybe involved in regard rate regulations and how much cable operators are able to charge based on criteria and the overall price of cable rates.

Mr. Curry stated one of the major advantages of taking on this type of task is that as the spokes person for Indianapolis you begin to know people which opens channels that were not there before.

The next item on the agenda was the Channel 16 Programming Report presented by Mr. Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery highlighted some of the activities of Channel 16 for the month of April. In April there were 35 hours and 34 minutes of live meeting coverage. Tape Delay meetings totaled 5 hours and 32 minutes. Special Events Production totaled 20 hours and 59 minutes.

In the area of In-Kind Production, Channel 16 had 14 hours and 52 minutes of production. The total for the month of April for all productions was 80 hours and 58 minutes. Interactive Information Usage totaled 1,303 calls for the month. Mr. Montgomery also stated staff member Jeff Coats has been awarded a Bronze Telly Award in the annual national competition. Guardian Home 2000 was recognized for excellence in the area of fundraising communications. Channel 16 was able to support the election process by taping and replaying the Election Day Inspector Training session on Saturday, May 2^nd. The session was edited for titling and replayed that same day at 7pm. The show was also aired on Channel 16 on the Sunday and Monday preceding the election.

Beginning the week of May 11, 1998, Channel 16 is increasing access to the legislative meetings it carries by scheduling evening and morning replays of City-County Council Committees, and the full Council sessions. These replays will occur within 24 hours from the time of the live meeting. Mr. Montgomery also provided the Board with a roster of Public Meetings Coverage. Mr. Montgomery stated that he is speaking with George Walker who is head of the Probation Department’s the Adults Service Division. Channel 16 is going to do a six part informational training video for them. Mr. Montgomery also stated that Channel 16 has been talking with the staff at Indianapolis Housing Authority about on-going housing reports for their organization. Channel 16 is also working on a show with Councillor Bradford called "This Old District". Mr. Montgomery also presented the Board with a Digital and High Definition TV report.

The next agenda item was the Cable Operator’s Report. Mr. Wilson presented Comcast’s report. Mr. Wilson stated in April Comcast is continuing to rebuild and completed 105 miles in the month of April. He anticipates finishing the rebuild at the end of this year.

Mr. Wilson stated that in April Comcast had 111,306 full basic service customers and 90,637 total pay customers. For incoming calls, Comcast had 77,019 calls; 78.55% of those calls were answered in 30 seconds or less. Comcast had 105 outages for the month, 11 of them were planned. Comcast received and scheduled 3,367 calls and completed 3,261; 66.9% were completed within 24 hours; 99.5% were completed in 36 hours. Comcast scheduled 3,546 installations and completed 3,330 of those scheduled. In the construction report, there are 9 construction locations.

Mr. Wilson stated that during the month of April, Comcast had 35.5 hours of community interest programming aired on Channel 50. WAV-53 had 142.5 hours of locally produced programming. In April 1998, Comcast aired and produced 10 public service announcements. As for community events and sponsorships, Comcast produced a public service announcement with Congressman Dan Burton to promote a Breast Cancer Seminar at which he would be speaking. Comcast was a gold sponsor of the 1998 Race for the Cure, held in Military Park on April 18. Comcast’s Community Relations Manager attended a meeting of the Warren Central High School/Walker Career Center Advisory Committee on April 21, 1998. Comcast also sponsored the Big Sisters "Take our Daughters to Dinner" fundraiser on April 23, 1998. Comcast and Lifetime Television for Women arranged for Indy Racing League driver Lyn St. James to speak at the dinner.

Comcast was the television sponsor of the ‘Champions on Ice" figure skating exhibition at Market Square Arena. Finally Comcast taped Newsmaker segments with: Dr. George Hicks, Midwest Ear Institute; Elizabeth Kraft-Meek, 500 Festival; Vicki Kennedy, The Wellness Community; Lora Smith, Ruth Lilly Health Education Center; and Jean Paison, Second Helpings.

Mr. Curry asked in reference to the number of subscribers in the Comcast report, that the upgrade and non-upgrade totals do not equal the beginning or the ending subscribers total.

Mr. Wilson stated that there is probably an error in the report and he will look into the totals.

Ms. Shary Hoffman-Meadows presented the Cable Operator’s Management Report for Time Warner. Ms. Hoffman-Meadows stated that Time Warner has had a steady customer growth in the last six months. Time Warner completed 4,487 installs for the month of April. Incoming calls total for the month was 51,228; answering 92.7% within 30 seconds or less. Service calls were up slightly for the month with 4,056; 82.7% of those calls completed within 24 hours and 97.5% within 36 hours. Time Warner had 30 outages for the month. Ms. Hoffman-Meadows stated upgrade activity that is causing the outages and once the upgrade is completed the outages will be less. Ms. Hoffman-Meadows also stated the average number of customers per outage continues to go down slightly. Time Warner is doing some construction in the Marion College units and a number of other apartment complexes.

In its Community Involvement reports, Time Warner continues its support of the arts airing a PSA for Dance Kaleidoscope, also airing a PSA for American Cancer Society for their "Relay for Life" event. Time Warner also sent reminders to all teachers about TWC’s Golden Apple Awards, and arranged an interview for Cable in the Classroom with WIBC Radio. Ms. Hoffman-Meadows stated, in regard to the Upgrade, Time Warner is on schedule.

The next item on the agenda was the ETC Report. Mr. Donaldson presented the ETC report. ETC has updated its Web Site at www.c-2000.org/etc . The site now includes updated organizational information and links to Channel 16 and the Cable Franchise Board. ETC worked cooperatively with the Indianapolis Economic Development Corporation and Linger Communications to record the Indianapolis and Central Indiana Technology Summit on April 30, 1998. ETC provided editing services to prepare the program for playback on ETC and WCTY-Channel 16. The program is currently airing on both access channels. David Donaldson represented ETC at a meeting for "On Your Level Television", which was held at the Indiana Statehouse. Producer Blair Karsch was seeking support from various resource providers to assist him in his future grant applications. ETC has pledged its support within the standard programming guidelines.

ETC has begun distribution of monthly programming schedules by its Web site. ETC mailed out notices last month to 700 addresses. Less than 50 Business Reply Cards were returned requesting a US Mail delivered copy. This will reduce monthly printing and postage expenses by 70%.

Mr. Donaldson stated in regard to Program Overview, Education Showcase which has been funded by Comcast for many years has expired and that program will not be renewed. For April/May 1998, ETC provided 382 hours of tape/live programming, 234 hours of locally produced programming, 118 hours of purchased programming, 30 hours of free or donated programming and 321 hours of SCOLA Foreign Language Programming.

Mr. Curry stated that it’s good that the community is able to view ETC on the World Wide Web; however, there are people in the community who do not have that ability and many of those people may be the most in need of this kind of education. Hopefully ETC can expand its services. Mr. Curry also thanked Mr. Donaldson for getting with Mr. Karsch.

Under Old Business, Mr. Montgomery submitted a second draft of the Digital Conversion Plan. Mr. Montgomery stated the plan is slightly different from the first Digital Plan. It is $151,000 less over three to four years than was previously presented. Mr. Montgomery stated that Channel 16 is not looking to require a video server to operate Channel 16 in the future because of the cost. (see Digital Conversion Plan report)

Mr. Montgomery stated that the Conversion Plan is to evolve Channel 16 over the next 3 to 4 years into a digital operation which would provide the capability to provide a digital signal to the cable operators when the operators indicate that they are ready to receive that signal. Utilizing the acquisition schedule, the entire Channel 16 production operation will be converted to digital by the end of the year 2001. The output of the head-end will remain analog NTSC until the cable operators indicate a readiness to accept a digital signal. The total proposed digital conversion cost is $576,504.

Mr. Curry stated since the 1999 budget process has begun that there needs to be some checking with the Controller’s office on the status of fund balances. Mr. Curry also stated that the next Digital report should indicate that there is some cooperation with Time Warner, Comcast and Channel 16 to be assured in what Channel 16 is doing is compatible with the cable operators’ plans.

Under Old Business, Mr. Montgomery also submitted a PEG Grant Fund request. Mr. Montgomery stated with the recent discontinuation of both Hi-8 and ¾ videotape formats by Sony, it has become necessary to adopt a new videotape format at Channel 16. Channel 16 is requesting PEG Grant funding for the capital equipment items. (see PEG Grant Funding memo). Mr. Montgomery also stated because a replacement ¾ deck for the playback system has been abandoned, there is $9,000 available and unencumbered in the 1998 Channel 16 Character 4 Capital Equipment budget. The $9,000 figure is being targeted to reduce Channel’s 16 overall PEG Grant request.

The PEG Grant funds, if approved, will be transferred by the Controller’s Office into the Character 4 Capital Equipment Budget. Mr. Montgomery stated the 1998 PEG Grant fund request is a follow-up to the multi-year digital conversion plan presented to the Board in February of this year. The amount being requested is $12,000 lower than the 1^st year acquisition cost presented in the first draft of the plan. The total 1998 PEG Grant funding request is $106,484.00.

Mr. Curry stated the listing of equipment with the $9,000 modification is the budget that was planned for 1998. If the Board recommends continuing with the plan then, the Agency would go through the fiscal approaches to request the actual appropriation.

Mr. Hiltunen asked how much money was currently in the PEG Grant Fund.

Mr. Curry stated according to FAMIS there is $273,082.55 in the PEG Grant Fund.

Mr. Hiltunen asked Mr. Montgomery whether the Panasonic players would replace the High- 8’s.

Mr. Montgomery stated that High- 8’s will not necessarily be replaced because a few show tapes have been recorded in the past on High -8 tapes. Mr. Montgomery stated that Channel 16 will probably retain those tapes for the next three to four years.

Motion was made by Mr. Rhodes, seconded by Mr. Hiltunen, to pursue Channel 16’s PEG Grant Fund into a fiscal ordinance. Motion carried unanimously.

Mr. Leonard requested an update on whether the IPS Board meetings are being broadcast.

Mr. Maultra stated the last conversation he had was with Superintendent Pat Pritchett and he was told that IPS was looking into it. However he hasn’t heard anything from IPS or Pat Pritchett since his last conversation.

Mr. Hiltunen asked if IPS produced their own meetings it be aired on Channel 16.

Mr. Maultra stated no, that ETC has offered them a time slot to air IPS meetings.

Mr. Hiltunen stated that there should be a follow up with IPS to see where the Board stands.

Mr. Maultra asked if he should follow up with Pat Pritchett.

Mr. Curry stated yes there is definitely interest from the Board.

Mr. Donaldson, stated ETC has identified a time slot for IPS.

Under Public Comment, Mr. Shafer stated greetings from the Church Federation of Indianapolis.

Mr. Curry stated greeting accepted.

Mr. Smashey stated that the Downtown area has the new upgrade for Time Warner . Stating that he lost his C-Span due to the upgrade and Fox Sports Midwest Network has been moved to the basic tier, Mr. Smashey stated somehow he still has Fox Sports Midwest on EPS Saturday and Sunday. Mr. Smashey has duplicate Fox Sports Midwest Networks. Also he stated that on EPS he has duplicate full time Univision. Mr. Smashey stated that Univision is now on the upper tier along with C-Span and these channels are supposed to be no fee for service.

Mr. Satterfield stated that in the upgrade area Fox Sports has a full time channel which has been part of basic for the last year. The non-upgraded areas have a part time channel on the EPS Channel which is part of basic.

Mr. Curry asked if at the end of the year the Fox Sports problem self corrects and this is a issue of upgrade and non-upgrade.

Mr. Satterfield stated yes, that at the end of the year Fox Sports will be taken off the Public Safety Channel because everyone will be upgraded by then.

Mr. Smashey asked if carriage on Channel 17 is temporary and if so why.

Mr. Satterfield stated that it is temporary because TimeWarner could not have Fox Sports on CPST in upgraded areas and on basic in the non-upgrade and at the end of this year there will be a switch and move it into the upper tier. Channel 17 then will become the new additional Educational Government Channel. Mr. Satterfield also stated C-Span and Univision are considered to be commercial channels under the FCC rate regulations that were established in 1992 and 1993.

Ms. Andrea Price stated that she was assured last year that as Fox Sports Midwest was made available to the cable subscribers that it would roll off carriage on EPS.

Mr. Curry stated that’s why Mr. Satterfield stated that it is self correcting between now and December.

Ms. Price asked if Mr. Smashey’s service will be corrected immediately or in December.

Mr. Satterfield stated in December.

Ms. Price stated that was not her understanding of what was agreed to last year.

Mr. Curry stated that was his understanding.

Ms. Price also wanted clarification on Mr. Satterfield’s comment that at the end of the year Fox Sports Midwest moves off the basic tier. Will the rates go down and does that imply that the rates went up?

Mr. Satterfield stated in the basic service tier rate that there is a component of programming cost for Fox Sports Midwest. When it changes tier that pricing component will be shifted to its new tier. There will be a reduction in basic and a corresponding addition to the CPST tier.

Ms. Price stated that Public Access of Indianapolis has received its advance ruling as a 501 ( c) corporation.

There being no other business to come before the Board, Mr. Curry adjourned the meeting at 4:05 P.M.

___________________________________
Carlton Curry, Chairman

____________________________________
Mr. Charlie Hiltunen, Member

____________________________________
Mr. David Leonard, Member

____________________________________
Mr. Steve Nelson, Member

____________________________________
Mr. Stuart Rhodes, Member

ATTEST:

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Ms. Janise Winston, Recording Secretary