January 18, 2000

City County Building
Indianapolis IN 46204

MEMBERS PRESENT

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

OTHERS PRESENT

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

SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION

The first 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 the Cable Agency has spent most of its time this past month in reviewing the transfer documents that pertain to the acquisition of Time Warner of Indianapolis to that of Comcast Cablevision of Indianapolis. The first order of business is to request further data from the cable operators that the City may need in which to proceed in the matter. The Cable Agency and its counsel have 30 days in which to review the document and make that determination. The Agency did request more complete information. The Cable Agency does have the document available in its offices for public inspection and duplication. The Agency hopes to post the document on the Cable Agency web site.

Digital Access, Inc., the Philadelphia based company that applied for open video system (OVS) certification to service Indianapolis and Central Indiana continues to seek additional information from the Cable Agency. The Federal Communications Commission did approve Digital Access’ certification application to provide service to Indianapolis and Central Indiana. A recent article that highlights the services Digital Access intends to provide has been provided to members of the board for perusal previously. The article is available on the web site.

The Cable Agency took a number of cable complaints over the past month and worked with Comcast an Time Warner in an effort to resolve those matters.
The next item on the agenda was the approval of minutes for the Cable Board’s December 20, 1999 meeting. Motion was made by Mr. Rhodes, seconded by Mr. Leonard, to approve the minutes of the Board’s December 20, 1999 meeting. Motion carried unanimously.

The next item on the agenda was the Channel 16 programming report presented by Mr. Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery highlighted some activities of Channel 16 for the month of December. In December there 37 hours and 29 minutes of Live and Tape delay meetings. Special Events production totaled 13 hours and 49 minutes.

In the area of In Kind Production, Channel 16 had 1 hour and 45 minutes. Series Programming totaled 6 hours and 15 minutes. Total new production for the month of December was 59.18 hours.

Mr. Curry stated that he would like to see Channel 16 prepare a perspective capital outlook of amounts that will be needed to continue with the digital transfer by March of 2000.

The next item on the agenda was the Cable Operator’s Management Reports. Mr. Aldridge stated that Time Warner gained 793 customers for the month of December. Time Warner had scheduled 4,231 installs and 3,077 were completed. Incoming calls for the month were 37,031 received and 36,469 handled. Service calls for the month were 2,188 received and 1,591 scheduled and 1,541 completed. Time Warner had 38 outages including 5 planned outages. See Construction report. The Community Involvement report supports a lot of different community events and programming (see report).

Mr. Curry asked for Time Warner and Comcast to provide the Board with studies, at next month board meeting, in regards to outages and the comparison of outages since fiber optics upgrade and its improvements the cable companies have seen.

The next item on the agenda was the Comcast’s Management Report. Mr. Apple stated Comcast ended the month with 112,963 subscribers. Incoming calls: Comcast received 98,858 and handled 94,875 calls. Comcast had 71 outages including 6 planned outages. Comcast received and scheduled 2,597 service calls and completed 2,500; 99.9% were completed within 36 hours or by customer request. See Construction report. Installations: Comcast scheduled 3,716 and completed 3,553 ; 100% were completed within 7 days or by Customer request after 7 days.

Mr. Apple stated that Comcast had 15 hours of lease access programming and 128.5 hours on WAV-53. Comcast aired and produced 8 public service announcements and 18 newsmaker segments. For Comcast events and sponsorships; see report.

The next item on the agenda was the ETC report. Mr. Harris stated Mark Harris has been elected the new ETC Vice-President. Mark is the Director of Operations at WTBU, Butler University Television. Mark replaces previous Vice-Operations Linda Hayward from Franklin Township whom is thanked for her past efforts.

The “IPS Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration” was seen live on Friday, January 14th . The annual event honoring the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Originated from IPS Crispus Attuck Middle School. It featured performances by students and speeches by former Congressman Andy Jacobs, Jr. And Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson. The program will be replayed throughout the months of January and February.

The news magazine show “Northwest Vision” has begun being shown. It is produced by students at IPS Northwest high School and features stories about events at the school.

The Colonial Williamsburg Electronic Fieldtrips will continue being seen on the Educational Television Channel in 2000. The events are live monthly and take students back in history and to people that lived through different experiences.

Mr. Harris stated in Future Programming, the Christian Theological Seminary is in the process of producing three programs. One will be an hour-long interview with new Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, another will feature a tour of the Conseco Fieldhouse, and the third will discuss race relations. The race relations program will be a series.

The ETC will also be producing programming on Alternative Education that will go beyond just what is available in public education.

For January 2000, ETC provided : 0 hours of purchased programming, 422 hours of free or donated programming; 315 hours of SCOLA.

Under old Business, Mr. Curry stated there were data that has been turned in to the Board from Comcast in regards to the 394 transfer that is yet to be reviewed for completeness.

Under New Business, Mr. Maultra addressed the proposal of Audit Franchise Fee for Time Warner 1998-99, stating during a cable transfer process municipalities have an opportunity to hear compliance issues and past franchise fees that might be due. Mr. Maultra stated it would be appropriate to due a final franchise audit for Time Warner. Mr. Karrison has sent a proposal to the Cable Agency stating Mr. Karrison anticipates about $13,500 to due this audit for the two years for Time Warner. Mr. Maultra asked the Board to look favorable to Mr. Karrison’s proposal.

Mr. Curry asked Mr. Mautlra if Mr. Karrison gave a date of when the audit would be completed.

Mr. Maultra stated that Mr. Karrison did not give a date, however Mr. Karrison seemed to indicate that the audit could be done before the April 14th date.

Motion was made by Mr. Hiltunen seconded by Mr. Rhodes, to accept Mr. Karrison proposed program for a fee not to exceed $11,550.00 for Time Warner franchise audit. Motion carried unanimously.

Motion was made by Mr. Leonard seconded by Ms. Gutman , to limit the scope of Mr. Karrison audit not to include investigation of launch fees or advertisement. Motion carried unanimously.

Under Public Comment, Mr. Smashey commented on the 394 transfer and having no competitors in the Indianapolis are. Mr. Smashey also commented on the rate increase Time Warner had. Mr. Smashey stated cable operators need to completely understand how they are to pay the franchise fees. Ms. Price stated she does not see anything in the 394 transfer that will benefit the cable subscriber, stating she feels there are a number of items in the transfer that are of concern. Mr. Earl also had questions and concerns about the 394 transfer.

There being no further business to come before the Board, Mr. Curry adjourned the meeting at 4:00 p.m.