Minutes Cable Regulatory 7 14 04
MINUTES OF CABLE TV REGULATORY COMMISSION MEETING
JULY 14, 2004
CITY HALL ANNEX CONFERENCE ROOM # 2
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Charles Ellis, Chairman, Ron Tigges, Walt Webster
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Michael Pratt. One seat remains vacant on the Commission.
OTHERS PRESENT:
Kathy McMullen, General Manager, Mediacom
Merrill Crawford, Cable Franchise Administrator
Mr. Ellis called the meeting to order at 5:42 p.m.
1.
Acceptance of the Agenda.
Upon a motion by Mr. Webster, seconded by Mr. Tigges, the agenda was
approved as distributed.
2.
Approval of the Minutes of the May 12, 2004 Meeting.
Upon a motion by Mr. Webster, seconded by Mr. Tigges, the Minutes of the May
12,2004 meeting were approved as distributed.
3.
Public Comment.
There was no one present to address the Commission.
4.
Status of Telecom Projects in Dubuque.
Mr. Crawford told Commissioners he had nothing new to report. Commission
engaged in a brief discussion of municipal wireless systems (including Wi-Fi and
MESH wireless technologies and experimental systems.)
5.
Franchise Renewal.
Mr. Crawford reported that the City Council had as expected approved an
additional extension of the current Mediacom franchise and related agreements in
Dubuque, to December 31,2004. Informal negotiations and the tasks of the formal
franchise renewal process continue. Regarding the system technical audit being
conducted by CBG Communications, Mr. Crawford told Commissioners that CBG
had requested a substantial amount of technical detail in written form from
Mediacom, including information from public files and FCC forms, as well as
material which Mediacom had apparently determined was proprietary or could be
competitively damaging if released to existing or potential competitors. As a result,
instead of delivering the packet of information by the promised deadline in June,
Mediacom had asked the City, its consultants and any representatives who would
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be viewing the technical information to sign a confidentiality agreement. At that
point, City attorneys and Mediacom attorneys began negotiating acceptable terms
of the confidentiality agreement, which will be placed on the City Council agenda
for approval on July 19, 2004.
Mr. Crawford also told Commissioners that in response to an Institutional Network
proposal submitted by Mediacom, CBG had asked for additional technical detail
involving network design. Mediacom had apparently found that some of that detail
also was proprietary and would need to be covered by the confidentiality
agreement before being presented to the City.
Regarding the franchise fee payment analysis, consultant Scott Lewis has reported
that Mediacom has delivered much of the information he requested, but is still
remiss in the delivery of some specific categories of revenue information pertaining
to advertising and some other non-subscriber revenue sources.
Mr. Crawford told Commissioners that in the meantime, one significant issue that
has been addressed in the needs ascertainment as a future cable-related need
has seen improvement within the past week; that being technical changes to
eliminate the longstanding problem of atmospheric interference with off-the-air
reception of broadcast channels (particularly Channel 2).
Ms. McMullen then told Commissioners that Mediacom was now importing the
television signal of KGAN, broadcast Channel 2 in Cedar Rapids, from its source to
Dubuque by direct fiber optic cable link. Similarly, the signal of Cedar Rapids FOX
affiliate KFXA is now being imported to Dubuque directly by fiber optic cable,
replacing the KFXB local UHF signal in anticipation of sale and format changes at
that UHF station. Waterloo NBC affiliate KWWL, which broadcasts on Channel 7,
is being picked up in Waterloo off-the-air by Mediacom and then transmitted to
Dubuque by fiber. Eventually, Mediacom hopes to import stable quality broadcast
signals from all of the stations it carries by its fiber optic network.
Mr. Crawford encouraged Commissioners to conduct their own comparisons of the
Channel 2 signal and the Madison, WI WISC (broadcast Channel 3, cable Channel
22).
6.
Mediacom General Manager's Report.
Ms. McMullen announced the addition of high definition STARZ network
programming to the HDTV packages offered locally in Dubuque, distributed
information flyers about a new TV Guide interactive program guide service
associated with digital converters and DVR units and told Commissioners that she
expected Mediacom to introduce video-on-demand services in Dubuque by the end
of the year.
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7.
8.
9.
MC/cj
Cable Franchise Administrator Report.
Mr. Crawford told Commissioners of the status of an issue which had been brought
by a citizen at an earlier Commission meeting. He had notified Mediacom by letter
that the company's policy (new in February 2004) of charging subscribers for an
additional seven days of cable service beyond the date the subscriber notified
Mediacom of the desire to terminate, was in violation of the franchise. He had
ordered Mediacom to cease the practice and to refund to affected customers the
additional seven days of charges beyond their date of notification of service.
Mediacom had indeed stopped assessing the seven-day charge within the city
limits of Dubuque while the company's attorneys review the situation and develop a
final position, which is to be communicated to the City. However, no refunds have
been made yet to the affected subscribers and Mediacom has indicated it has
difficulty in distinguishing those former subscribers who were arbitrarily charged an
additional seven days for services they did not want, from those subscribers who
routinely gave the cable operator more than seven days advance notice and
therefore terminated and stopped paying for service on the day that they intended
for service to stop.
Mr. Crawford told Commissioners of a telephone survey by an Iowa State
University intern who had called City Hall asking about various cable prices for
basic service, expanded basic and the entire variety of packages, options, and
charges. Mr. Crawford and Commissioners discussed in some detail the problems
of inaccurate information gained by such questioning, because of the additional
charges such as franchise fees, PEG access surcharges, differing local option
sales taxes, etc. which some cable operators add onto subscriber bills, but which
(except for sales taxes) Dubuque requires Mediacom to recover from within its rate.
The resulting data and its interpretation can be the reverse of the true situation, as
was the case when the Telegraph Herald compared Family Cable service rates
between Dubuque and Iowa City and erroneously concluded that Mediacom's rate
for that package in Iowa City was substantially less than its rate in Dubuque, when
the reverse is true.
Future Agenda Items.
There were no additional items to be added to the agenda.
Adjournment.
Upon a motion by Mr. Tigges, seconded by Mr. Webster, the meeting was
adjourned at 6:20 p.m.
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