MEMBERS PRESENT:

Carlton Curry, Chairman
Stuart Rhodes, Member
Peter Blum, Member
Daniel Lynch, Member
Charlie Hiltunen, Member

OTHERS PRESENT:

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

SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION

The first item on the agenda was the approval of minutes for the Cable Board’s April 16, 2001. Motion was made by Mr. Hiltunen, seconded by Mr. Curry to approve minutes. 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 last month. Stated that earlier in the month the Cable Agency received notice from Time Warner that it will be selling its premium channels at a more uniformed rate with discounts of one dollar for each additional premium channel added. Mr. Maultra stated from what he can tell from this notice it appears that various premium promotions that Time Warner subscribers may have been under have come to an end. Time Warner will be adding Disney, the Sci-Fi Channel and Turner Classic movies to its full cable service. For the customer, depending on what options they were taking at the time, there may or may not be an increase to their standard service. Mr. Maultra stated the Agency found the notification a little confusing. Stating on one hand, the cover letter seems to indicate that there will be a $1.50 increase for the changes to the standard service and the attached letter of notification to the customer indicates that there is no increase for the changes made to their standard service.

The Cable Agency has been working with consultants, Action Audits and Comcast with respect to the cable operator’s most recent rate filing for increases to Comcast’s limited basic service tier as well as associated equipment and hourly service charges. At this point, and after conferring with the Agency’s legal counsel, the Agency will prepare a rate order for the June meeting. Separately, the Agency believe they have an understanding with Comcast and the areas of prior disagreement as it related to their filed FCC Form 1250 and the hourly service charges. Mr. Maultra stated the Agency is awaiting a letter of understanding from Comcast’s Chief Financial Officer for this region who is currently on vacation. Instead of doing two separate rate orders for the 1240 and the 1205 rate filings, the Agency will prepare one after we have received the letter of understanding from Comcast.

Mr. Maultra stated with respect to the work the cable Agency is doing on the institutional network (INET), the Cable Agency understands that the Chief Information Officer’s staff has been surveying staff of the township fire departments as to what their future telecommunication needs might be and how that might fit into future INET applications to be used by them. For the new board members, Comcast has a provision in their franchise agreement with the City to provide an INET of which the township fire departments are eligible to use. The township fire departments have requested connection to this INET and the Agency has been working with the CIO’s office to determine how to best meet their INET needs. The Agency also have been in discussion with an INET consultant who the City may want to use to assess and pull the data together as there are a number of INET considerations to contemplate in the near and long term future for the City.

Mr. Maultra stated that he and Attorney Bob Borgmann attended the NATOA (National Association of Telecommunications Officers & Advisors) Regional Conference 8in Seattle during April. Stating this conference incorporated the NATOA Legal Conference of the past two years as well as new content for the traditional regional conference.

The Cable Agency had been serving as a consumer advocate in mediating a number of cable television complaints received by its office.

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 April. In April there were 50 hours 16 minutes of Live and Tape delayed meetings. Special Events productions totaled 10 hours and 19 minutes. Series programming totaled 5 hours.

In the area of In-Kind Production, Channel 16 had 18 minutes. Total new production was 65 hours and 53 minutes.

Mr. Montgomery stated the biggest news from the year’s NAB is no news- stating there was no big new technology announcements that will affect the broadcast and cable television industry. Most vendors concurred the technology advances of the past few years are being readily adopted by the industry, including a steady migration to video servers and DVD-RAM archiving. Writable DVDs are being utilized in virtually all archiving systems due to the broad buy-in by the industry and consumers alike.

Stating with this information in mind, it is recommended that Channel 16 begin planning for the acquisition of a video server to provide programming output to both channels (this server will eventually replace the current videotape playback system). Indiana Open Access Laws regarding public records also make it worthwhile to plan for the acquisition of a storage system for archiving public meeting coverage in perpetuity.

Vendors who were visited during the NAB event are being invited to prepare proposals for a turn-key system meet the current and potential needs for Channel 16 Government Access Television operation. The specs and cost for this versatile system will be presented to the Cable Franchise Board at an upcoming meeting. Due to the potential cost of the server/archive system, the City Controller’s Office has requested that funding be drawn from the available balance of the PEG Capital Equipment Grant account, and not be included in Channel 16’s 2002 operating budget.

The next item on the agenda was the Cable Operator’s Management Report. Mrs. Shary Johnston stated Time Warner will be making changes. Stating the Disney Channel, the Sci-Fi and Turner Classic Movers are moving to the standard cable line-up, rather than being offered as a la carte services. For Time Warner Disney customer, this will mean a significant reduction in their monthly billing since the addition of all three channels will increase the standard service price by only $1.50, while the monthly premium charge for Disney goes away.

In addition, during a recent billing audit, Time Warner found that a number of their customers’ promotional packages had expired. As a result, in July Time Warner will be correcting several special pricing codes that have resulted in some of their customers paying higher prices for packages of programming that other customers unfairly receive for a lower monthly fee. Most of their packages involve premium services such as HBO, Showtime and Cinemax.

Mrs. Johnston stated Time Warner will be notifying consumers that effective with their July billing, they will implement a uniform premium pricing plan that eliminates the inequities that had developed because of expired package pricing. The first premium service selected by the customer will cost $10 per month. If the customer selects a second premium service, the cost of the second service will decrease by a dollar and the customer will only be charged an additional $9. A third premium service can be purchased for an additional $8. Also stating Standard service will increase from $23.90 to $24.40.

Mrs. Johnston stated Time Warner had a slight gain in customers in the month of April. Stating Time Warner completed 100% of installation within 7 days. Incoming calls for the month was 64,627 received and 61,033 handled; 88.20% of calls were answered in 30 seconds. Service calls: Time Warner received 4,272 calls; scheduled 2,893 and completed 2,687; 83% within 24 hours. Time Warner had 28 outages.

The Community Involvement report supports a list of different community events and programming (see report).

The next item on the agenda was the Comcast Management Report. Mr. Apple stated that Comcast will be launching four new Disney channels to its subscribers. Comcast had a gain of customers in the month of April. Incoming calls for the month were 56,966 received and 55,744 handled. Comcast had 83 outages including 5 planned outages. Comcast received and scheduled 3,237 service calls and completed 2,167; 99.7% within 36 hours or by customer request. Installations; Comcast scheduled 3,042 and completed 2,169; 100% within 7 days or less by customer request. See construction report.

The next item on the agenda was the TOTALink presentation. Mr. Peter Jablonsky stated TOTALink remains in the pre-construction phase of operations. TOTALink continues to map the city, conduct pre-engineering surveys and install-limited amounts of anchors and support strand in strategic areas. TOTALink also plans on continuing in this pre-construction phase until the pole owners and other attachers provide sufficient attachment space on the poles. TOTALink cannot commence meaningful construction of the network until this necessary work occurs.

TOTALink’s Central Office/Headend is located at 250 West North Street. Renovations of that building will be coordinated with their network construction schedule so that when TOTALink first nodes in phase one are released to market, that CO/HE facility will then be tested and ready to supply services there.

Mr. Jablonksy stated the 20 proposed all fiber Upgraded I-Net locations have been reviewed by TOTALink engineering department.

The next item on the agenda was the ETC report. Mr. Earl Harris stated On May 18^th, from 6-730pm The Indianapolis Public Schools produced the "IPS Talent Showcase" live from IPS Crispus Attucks Middle School. It featured performances by IPS students in the areas of music, dance, and oratory skills. The showcase was live on ETC 1 and will be replayed throughout the months of May and June.

Chad Hubbard, independent producer has approached the ETC about a series tentatively titled, "Choices and Consequences". It will focus on different local individuals who are making changes in their lives to better their situations and leave behind past lives of violence and bad decisions. July is the target month for beginning the series.

IPS is in post-production on a series that will show speakers and presentations from the first IPS Leadership Institute. The speakers were education experts from around the country. The series is expected to begin in July.

IPS Television Intern and IPS Arsenal Technical High School student Robert Lewis recently won an award from the Indiana Association of School Broadcasters for a spot being seen on the Educational Channels. Robert won 1^st place in the TV spot Production category for this 30 second "Preparing for College" spot.

 The ETC is requesting its Twelfth Public Purpose Grant from the City-County Council for the amount of $50, 000.

 Under Public comment Mr. Smashey complained about having an empty channel and moving the Disney Channel. Also complained about the Time Warner rate increase.

There were no further businesses to come before the Board; Mr. Curry adjourned the meeting at 4:15 p.m.