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Home My WebLink About14-085RESOLUTION NO. 14-85 A RESOLUTION GRANTING CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS A WAIVER FROM ITS CABLE FRANCHISE REQUIREMENT AND ALLOWING CHARTER TO RELOCATE LOCAL COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING TO HIGHER CHANNEL NUMBER LOCATIONS WHEREAS, Charter Cable Partners, LLC, 1/k/a Charter Communications ("Charter") operates a Cable System to provide Cable Service within the City of Lakeville ("City") pursuant to a Franchise Agreement with the City ("Franchise"); WHEREAS, the Franchise requires Charter to dedicate four (4) channels for public, educational and government ("PEG") access programming and provides that Charter shall not relocate any PEG access channel unless agreed to in writing by the City; WHEREAS, the City or its designee is currently programming four (4) channels with PEG programming; WHEREAS, Charter has requested the City's consent to relocate all present PEG access channels on or about October 1, 2014 from the current channel locations, Channels 10, 12, 16 and 22, to a new channel neighborhood in the 180 series of channels together with PEG channels of other cities in the region as described on Attachment A ("Relocation"); and WHEREAS, the Relocation shall result in Charter's PEG Channels being carried exclusively on its all-digital platform as set forth in Attachment A. NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the promises set forth in this Agreement, the City resolves as follows: 1. The City consents to the one-time Relocation of the current PEG access channels as outlined in Attachment A, effective immediately. 2. The PEG access channels shall continue to be located on the basic service tier. 3. Charter has notified its subscribers of the PEG access channel relocation via direct mail and shall provide further notice of the new PEG access channel locations as set forth below: A. Charter shall list the PEG access channel locations in its on -air program guide. The parties acknowledge that Grantee contracts with a third party or parties to provide on-screen and on-line program listings. Grantee shall provide the City with information about the service provider(s) so that detailed program information for each PEG access channel can be included in the on-screen and online listings. It shall be the responsibility of the City, or its designee, to provide such detailed program information to the third -party entity or entities that produce such listings for Grantee in accordance with each such entity's normal format and scheduling requirements and at the City's cost. B. In addition to the obligations set forth in the Franchise at Exhibit E, paragraph 7, Charter shall provide in-kind air time over the twelve (12) month following enactment of this Resolution on advertiser supported channels (e.g. USA, TNT, TBS, Discovery Channel, etc.), on a run -of -schedule basis, for the purpose of airing a City - produced announcement, not to exceed thirty (30) seconds in length, explaining the PEG access channel(s) relocation. The air time shall include no less than three hundred (300) — thirty (30) second spots. Upon request, Charter will provide the City documented verification of the advertising carried to demonstrate compliance with this obligation. C. For approximately sixty (60) days after the Relocation, Charter shall provide a bill message to all subscribers in the City that specifically notes the PEG access channel relocations. D. Charter, shall for a minimum of sixty (60) days following adoption of this Resolution, provide a scroll on the Weather Channel on its Cable System within the City notifying viewers of the PEG channel relocation. 4. Charter agrees that on or after January 1, 2016 the City may provide a written request that one (1) PEG access channel be converted to a high definition ("HD") channel. Charter shall have ninety (90) days from the date of receipt of the City's request to implement the HD PEG channel(s). The City shall only be responsible for the production costs associated with the provision of an HD channel(s). Charter shall reimburse the City for one half (1/2) of the cost (based on actual invoices) up to $10,000.00 for equipment that is necessary for the transport of a digital signal (digital video with enabled audio) from the City's two designated head end facilities (located at the City Hall and ISD 194) to Charter's head end. Charter reserves all its rights to recoup its reimbursement and City hereby authorizes Charter to recoup its reimbursement as a line item pass through on subscriber bills as permitted by applicable law. Charter shall make such reimbursement to the City within thirty (30) days after receipt of the invoices. A subscriber to the basic cable service tier only who has a Charter HD capable set-top box will be able to receive the HD PEG channel(s) on that outlet without any additional cost. Within thirty (30) days of Charter's implementation of the conversion described in this Section 4 and upon request from a subscriber who does not have an HD capable set-top box, Charter will replace the subscriber's SD set-top box(es) with HD capable set-top box(es) at the same monthly SD set-top box charge to the subscriber so the subscriber can view the City's PEG HD channel(s). 5. Charter will provide the PEG access channels to subscribers in the City in either SD or HD formats as set forth herein. The placement of PEG access channels on the system shall not make these PEG channels more vulnerable to interference or ingress than the primary signals of local broadcast stations that are delivered using similar transmission technology in City. Within twenty-four (24) hours of a written request from City to the Grantee identifying a technical problem with the signal quality of a PEG channel and requesting assistance, Grantee will provide technical assistance or diagnostic services to determine whether or not a problem with a PEG signal is the result of matters for which Grantee is responsible and if so, Grantee will take prompt commercially reasonable corrective action. If the problem persists and there is a dispute about the cause, then the parties shall meet with engineering representation from Grantee and the City in order to determine the course of action to remedy the problem. Nothing herein shall require Charter to provide dual carriage of any PEG Channels. 6. Within thirty (30) days of the Relocation, Charter will provide, free of charge at Charter's headend, all equipment necessary to allow for the transmission of the City's PEG programming that is the subject of the Relocation as a digital signal from the City's point of origination (PEG head ends at City Hall and ISD 194) to Charter's head end facility. 7. The obligations set forth in this Resolution shall continue beyond the expiration of the Franchise and shall be incorporated into any renewal Franchise unless otherwise mutually agreed to by the parties in the renewal Franchise. Approved by the City of Lakeville, Minnesota this 22nd day of September, 2014. City of Lakeville, By: Its: Mayor By: Its: City Clerk Accepted: CHARTER CABLE PARTNERS, LLC L/K/A CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS 0 Its: Date: ATTACHMENT A Current Channel Number New Channel Number New Channel Service Level 10 189 Basic (Digital) 12 187 Basic (Digital) 16 180 Basic (Digital) 22 188 Basic (Digital)