§ 30-1. Definitions.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms, phrases, words, abbreviations and their derivations will have the meanings given herein:
Basic service shall have the meaning defined in the Communications Act of 1934, as amended.
Cable services shall mean the transmission to subscribers of video or other programming and subscriber interaction, if any, that is required for the selection of video programming or any other lawful communication service.
Cable system shall mean any facility consisting of a set of closed transmission paths and associated signal generation, reception and control equipment that is designed to provide cable service that includes video programming and is provided to multiple subscribers within the city.
CATV shall mean Community Antenna Television System.
City manager shall mean the chief executive officer of the city or any person designated by the city manager to act in his or her behalf.
Converter shall mean an interface device that may be available to subscribers in order that nonstandard television channels carried on a cable system may be received on a conventional home television receiver or to prevent interference from strong broadcast signals.
Council shall mean the governing body of the city.
Fair market value shall mean the price that a willing buyer would pay to a willing seller for a going concern based on the system valuation and sale multiples prevailing in the industry if the council elects to exercise its purchase option under this chapter and federal law, but with no value allocated to the franchise itself.
Fair rate of return shall mean the level of return calculated by using the net present value technique and shall at least equal a grantee's cost of capital.
Federal Communications Commission or FCC shall mean that federal agency as presently constituted by the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, or any successor agency.
Franchise shall mean the right, whether an initial authorization or a renewal, to construct and operate a cable system along the public ways in the city or within specified areas in the city. It is not intended to include or supersede, or otherwise affect, any license or permit required for the privilege of transacting and carrying on a business within the city as may be required by other ordinances and/or laws of the city.
GPISD shall mean the Grand Prairie Independent School District.
Grantee shall mean a natural person, partnership, domestic and/or foreign corporation or entity, association, joint venture or organization of any kind granted a franchise by the council under this chapter, and such grantee's lawful successor, transferee or assignee.
Grantor shall mean the City of Grand Prairie, Texas.
Gross revenues shall mean all amounts received by a grantee from or in connection with the operation of the system, including, without limitation:
(1)
Any revenue received from subscribers, including, but not limited to, revenue for basic service, tier service, additional outlets, music service, commercial service, premium service, pay-per-view service and related per-event services, or for the distribution of any noncable communication service over the system or the provision of any service-related activity in connection with the operation of the system. If grantee is allowed by law and chooses to provide telephony, grantee and grantor will negotiate the terms and franchise fees in accordance with federal and state law.
(2)
Revenue received from subscribers for installation, change in service, reconnection charges and similar fees.
(3)
Revenue received from subscribers for converters, remote controls or other equipment leased or rented to subscribers in connection with the delivery of cable services to such subscribers.
(4)
Revenue received from subscribers for service charges and fees attributable to delinquent accounts.
(5)
Revenue received from third parties, including advertising revenue, home shopping commissions, guide commissions, leased access payments.
(6)
Revenue shall include any payment or consideration, excluding any utility users' tax or new sales tax imposed by city or state or federal government, collected for direct payment to a third party. Franchise fees paid to the city are not deemed to be taxes and are not to be deducted from the total gross revenue figure on which franchise fees are paid.
(7)
Revenue shall also include the gross revenue of any other person which is derived directly or indirectly from or in connection with the operation of a system to the extent that such revenue is derived through a means which has the effect of avoiding the payment of franchise fees to the city that would otherwise be paid herein.
There shall be deducted from gross revenue bad debts written off by the grantee in the normal course of its business, provided, however, that bad debt recoveries shall be included in gross revenue; [and] refunds made to subscribers or other third parties.
In computing gross revenue from sources other than a grantee's subscribers, including, without limitation, revenue derived from the sale of advertising, home shopping services, guide sales, the lease of channel capacity over its cable system, or any other gross revenues attributable or allocated to the grantee in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles but received by another entity affiliated with the grantee, the aggregate revenue received by the grantee from such other sources during the period in question shall be multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which shall be the number of the grantee's subscribers in the city as of the last day of such period and the denominator of which shall be the number of subscribers within all areas served by the grantee as of the last day of such period.
Headend shall mean the central signal receiving and signal distribution point of the cable system. It will include such other signal receiving and signal distribution points the grantee erects to better serve the needs of its subscribers.
I-Net shall mean the institutional network provided pursuant to a franchise to the city and other nonresidential subscribing locations. The cable or fiberoptic system shall be capable of providing one-way, two-way, interactive, and machine-to-machine transfer of audio, video, voice and data signals within the system and to and from sources outside the system through the interconnection of the system to adjacent communities with similar networks. I-Net services shall be capable of being dedicated to the exclusive use of particular municipal users as determined by the city and shall also connect schools and government agencies to the grantee's headend or hubs of the system for retransmission downstream through the cable system to the public, utilizing access channels.
Net income shall mean the balance remaining to stockholders, partners, or owners after deducting from gross revenues all expenses associated with the operation of a cable system, including the franchise fee, interest, depreciation, amortization and federal, state and local taxes determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Noncable communications services shall mean all services offered over a cable system that go beyond providing generally available video programming or other programming. These services may include private line data transmission, and services providing subscribers with the capacity to transact, store, transform, forward, manipulate, or otherwise process information or data. Examples include, but are not limited to, shop-at-home and bank-at-home services; electronic mail; one-way and two-way transmission of nonvideo data and information not offered to all subscribers; and data processing. Telephony is not a noncable communication service, but a separate service as defined below.
Passed by the CATV system shall mean the construction of the system in a given area has been completed such that no major construction is required to provide basic cable service upon request.
PEG channel shall mean a public, educational or governmental channel(s) dedicated to noncommercial transmission of signals of a public access, educational, or governmental nature.
State of the art shall mean a cable system with production facilities, technical performance, capacity, equipment, components and service equal to that which has been developed and demonstrated to be more modern than generally accepted and used in the cable television industry for comparable areas of equivalent population.
Subscriber shall mean a person or user of the system who lawfully receives communications or other service with the grantee's permission.
Subscribing location shall mean any location where any service provided by a grantee's cable system is received.
Telephony shall mean voice communications that compete with services provided by telephone companies.
Total number of subscribers shall mean the number of subscribers determined as follows: In the event a single fee is paid for service to a multiple dwelling unit, the number of equivalent subscribers shall be determined by dividing the fee by the then prevailing basic cable service rate and rounding the resulting quotient to the nearest whole number. To this number shall be added the number of all other subscribers.
(Ord. No. 5344, § 1, 11-15-94)