May 17, 1999

City-County Building
Indianapolis IN 46204

Members Present

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

Members Absent

Steve Nelson

OTHERS PRESENT: 

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

The first agenda item was the approval of minutes for the Cable Board’s April 19, 1999 meeting. Motion was made by Mr. Rhodes, seconded by Mr. Curry, to approve the minutes of the Board April 19, 1999 meeting. Motion carried unanimously.

The next 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. Mr. Maultra stated Comcast and AT&T reached an agreement to stave off their bidding war over Media One. If the deal is approved, this arrangement may prove beneficial for Indianapolis Comcast subscribers. Comcast President Brian Roberts has stated that Comcast wants to offer residential local and long distance phone service. The resultant effort could provide consumer choice between Ameritech and Comcast for local exchange phone service.

Mr. Maultra stated the Cable Agency has updated its website and has included new links to recent stories regarding the Media One takeover, AT&T bid and other cable news related stories that affect cable consumers of Indianapolis and Marion County.

The Agency has reviewed Comcast’s response with counsel as to its initial query about possible non-compliance issues and have followed that up with a response that eliminated some items from its list. Some issues remain unresolved at this time. Mr. Maultra stated the Agency is hopeful that his informal discussions prove successful in resolving pending concerns.

Mr. Maultra stated FCC Chairman William Kennard recently issued the Cable Consumer Bill of Rights in light of the recent cable deregulation for expanded basic services. A copy of that documents has been included in Board packets.

The Cable Agency took a number of cable complaints over the past month and worked with Comcast and Time Warner in an effort to resolve those matters

The next item on the agenda was the Status report of the Audit of Cable Operators. Ms. Piety stated that Lou Karrison, from Crowe Chizek reviewed both cable operators and provided a report to her. The cable operators also responded to the Crowe Chizek report. Ms. Piety asked the Board if she should describe what is in the audit reports.

Mr. Curry stated the Board will be prepared to give its reviews at the next Board meeting which is June 21^st meeting.

The next item on agenda was the Status Report of Review of operator rate filings. Ms. Piety stated she has received a report from Lou Karrison stating both the operators are in compliance with the FCC regulations regarding their 1999 files. Ms. Piety stated these reports will be available the June 21^st meeting as well.

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 47 hours and 56 minutes of Live Meeting coverage. Tape Delay meetings totaled 7 hours and 51 minutes. Special Events Production totaled 19 hours and 20 minutes. Mr. Montgomery stated that in In-Kind services totaled $10,427.50.

In the area of In-Kind Production, Channel 16 had 11 hours and 44 minutes. Series Programs totaled 3 hours. Total new production for the month of April was 720 hours and 00 minutes.

Mr. Montgomery stated in reference to additional notes that Crackback One Neighborhood at a Time continues to earn accolades. Crime Stoppers will be again be producing monthly "most wanted" PSAs through the resources and staff of Channel 16. Mr. Maultra also stated discussions are underway to su0port the communication needs of the Indianapolis Housing Authority. Channel 16 is working with the League of Women Voters to televise a series of "Meet the Candidates" forums for the upcoming City-County elections.

The next item on the agenda was the Cable Operator’s Report. Mrs. Shary Johnston reported on the progress in resolving Channel 8 ingress problems, and that for the first time election results were reported in both English and Spanish she stated that Time Warner completed 2,944 installs for the month of April with 3,641 scheduled. Time Warner has had a 394 customer loss in its full cable service subscribers. Incoming calls for the month were 43,390 with 94.2% answered in 30 seconds. Busy rate 1.43%. Service calls for the month were 2,633 scheduled and 2,570 completed. Time Warner had 2 planned outages and 52 unplanned outages.

The Community Involvement report supports a lot of different community events and programming, including producing a spot for Edyvean Theatre, producing a spot for American Cabaret Theatre. Also, Mrs. Johnston stated that Time Warner attended a Court TV national launch of Choices and Consequences in Washington D.C.

See Community Involvement Report.

Mr. Leonard asked Mrs. Johnston if there is anyway Time Warner can approximate the viewership of Hispanics in its franchise territory.

Mrs. Johnston stated she does not have actual numbers however WAV and Time Warner have received a lot of comments from the Hispanic Community.

Mr. Curry stated that there was an omission in the local community interest programming section in Time Warner monthly report.

Mrs. Johnston stated there was a 143 ½ hours of local community interest programming for the month which averages 33.4 hours per week.

Mr. Curry stated that Time Warner should start including the local community interest programming numbers in the monthly report.

Mr. Apple presented the Cable Operator’s April Management Report for Comcast. Mr. Apple stated that Comcast had some programming changes and some channels took effect since last Board meeting. Also he stated that June 1^st Comcast will be adding Starz’s Encore multi-plex to its digital service. Mr. Apple also stated that Comcast will be repositioning channels in the digital services and information concerning the changes was provided to Rick Maultra. Mr. Apple stated the Media One merger with Comcast was derailed when AT&T made a bid which was a better offer than what Comcast had come up with. Comcast did strike a deal with AT&T which in the end will provide Comcast with 2 million subscribers.

Mr. Apple stated that Comcast had a good month with subscriber growth in April. Comcast had 100,771 calls; 67.02% of those calls were answered in 30 seconds or less. Comcast had 71 outages for the month , 4 of them were planned. Comcast received and scheduled 2662 calls and completed 2577; 51.5% were completed within 24 hours; 99.6% were completed in 36 hours or by customer request. Comcast scheduled 3,322 installations and 3,459 of those scheduled were completed.

Mr. Apple stated that during the month of April, Comcast had 46 ½ hours of community interest programming aired on Channel 50. WAV 53 had 143 ½ hours of locally produced programming. Comcast aired and produced 17 public announcements and 15 newsmaker segments. For Comcast events and sponsorships; see report.

The next item on the agenda was the ETC Report. Mr. Donaldson stated there are three modifications in the programming line-up for the Education/Public Safety Channel for the summer 1999:

Indiana College Network Programming has been reduced due to summer scheduling demand from the participating educational institutions. ICN Programming will appear from 1:00 PM-11:00 PM on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Duetche Welle German Language Programming has been added to the schedule from 7:00 AM-1:00 PM.

The Recovery Network is now scheduled from 11 PM-7:00 AM daily.

Mr. Donaldson stated ETC is hosting a Leadership Summit on Friday, May 21, 1999 at 1:00 PM at the Library Services Center. The address 2450 North Meridian Street, Room 226 A. The purpose of the meeting is to begin the development of a 10 year vision for the Educational Television Cooperative. There are a great number of successes to celebrate and there are equally as many challenges to conquer over the next 10 years. Mr. Donaldson stated discussion will focus on: review of 1998/99 Annual Report; review of the Functional Requirements of ETC Operations; Financial Review and Future Funding Requirements; and a discussion on Institutional Involvement and Leadership.

Mr. Donaldson stated a process has begun to identify a new project manager for the Educational Television Cooperative. Mr. Donaldson stated he will be stepping down effective June 30, 1999, in order to focus on projects more closely associated with his position at Indiana University. Mr. Donaldson has recently been assigned several high priority projects related classroom renovation and instructional technology installation across the IU System, which will leave little time for "other" projects. This change only affects the functional area of project management. The playback site and financial management functions will remain at IUPUI. Mr. Donaldson stated that in April ETC had 0 hours of paid programming and 382 hours of free or donated programming hours and 316 hours of SCOLA and 30 hours of Deutsche Welle.

Mr. Curry wished Mr. Donaldson well on his new assigned position at IU.

Under Old Business, Ms. Andrea Price from PAI , addressed the PAI Business Plan. Ms. Price stated that PAI feels there is very easily funding available from the City for the plan PAI has proposed. Ms. Price presented an addendum to the actual proposal that PAI presently earlier called Core funding. See Addendum report. Ms. Price stated that PAI is looking for this core funding from the Franchise fees which she feels will have little of impact on existing projects. Ms. Price also presented a flow chart for programming.

 Mr. Curry asked in regards to the flow chart, termination or suspension from what?

Ms. Price stated from the ability to be able to use the PAI or center.

Mr. Curry stated in respect of the two year Core funding requirement of the $300,000 for years 2000 and 2001, would the amount for the year 20002?

Ms. Price stated the $300,000 is a flat rate and it can be anticipated PAI will ask for the same amount in the following years.

Ms. Price also proposed that the Board to come to a working agreement so with PAI, so PAI can go out and get the outside funding. Ms. Price stated basically there are two components : 1) PAI would have a plan of making use of the channel; 2) PAI would get the additional $300,000 into the budget with the Cable Communication Agency.

Mr. Curry stated the Board has had previous discussions that the 4^th access channel is not a public access channel; it is a government or educational channel.

Ms. Price stated that PAI programming would be considered as educational programming.

Mr. Curry stated there may be a governmental use for the 4^th channel. This is the reason the RFI has been put on hold.

Mr. Leonard requested confirmation of the $287,000 surplus to fund PAI’s request.

Under Public Comment, James Smashey stated he would like to see the RFI channel go to PAI. Mr. Smashey is also in favor of PAI business plan.

Carl Kakasuleft cited a bill that he founded pending in Congress (HR1554) which would allow satellite programmers to carry all local channels. A Senate Commerce Committee amendment includes carriage of PEG channels by satellite programmers.

Mr. Leonard stated he is in favor of the bill allowing satellite providers to carry local channels.

Mr. Kevin Earles is in favor of the 4^th channel being assigned to PAI.

Mr. Alfred Chandler complained that senior citizens and handicapped cannot get a break on their cable bill and franchise fees. Mr. Chandler also had concerns as to where franchise fees are being spent.

There being no other business to come before the Board, Mr. Curry adjourned the meeting at 4:25 p.m.

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Carlton Curry, Chairman

__________________absent__________________
Steve Nelson, Member

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Charlie Hiltunen, Member

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David Leonard, Member

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Stuart Rhodes, Member

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Ms. Janise L. Winston, Recording Secretary