AG 1995 01 17 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CABLE TELEVISION RATE REVIEW FINDINGS SUMMARY Centr~lina Council of Governments C,;b=',.," Cgu- Y SUMMARY DATE: 3anuary 3, 1995 CABLE OPERATOR: Vision Cable of Metrollna DATE RATi~ INITIATED: ,September 1, 1993 TIER: A La Carte Packages REVIEW STATEMENT: .. Rates have been reviewed and are ACCEPTABLE under required Federal Communtcstions Commission guidelines. Comments are provided below. XXX Rates have been reviewed and are ACCEPTABLE under required Federal Conununlcsflons Commission guidelines with the qualifying comments provided below. Rates have been reviewed and are NOT ACCEPTABLE under Federal Communications Commission guidelines as per the explanation provided be]ow. QUALIFYING COMMENTS AND EXPLANATIONS: Under Federal Communications Commission reguhtions, local franchising authorities must make an initial determination about the appropriate regulatory s~atus of "a h carte" tier offertn~os made by the local cable operator. In reviewino° the FCC 1215 forms, a local Franchise Authority must make a decision o~ how to review collective offerings of 'a la cane" channels. CentraUna recommends that the Cabarms County Franchise Authority elect to treat such packages as a Cable Programming Service (CPS) tier, thst is regulated as a "New Product Tier" under the ~ewest ]~CC niles Issued I 1-10-94. ti'he alternative methodology is complex and unnecessary for the offerings made by Vision Cable for Cabarrus County). Under the new FCC rules issued 11-10-94, "a h carte" packages of 'a la carte" channels offered prior to April 1, 1993 would be accorded unregulated treatment, or "grandfathered" as accepl~ble package offerings. Therefore, any packages comprised of any combination of the four(4) "a la carte" ch~nr~els of HBO, Cinemax, Disney, and Showtime, are aoceptable under the newest I~CC rules and regulations. On 9-1-93, Vision Cable added a Supe~statiou Package, consisting of WTBS, WON, TNT, and WWOR, and Preferred Package, .cgnsisting of SportsSouth, Sci-Fi, and CMT. Three (3) of the channels in the Superstatton Package were "migrated" from the Basic Tier, and one channel from the Cable Programming Service (CPS) tier, to create this new package. As fc~ the Preferred Package, there three channels were part of a third tier, and these channels migrated from there.