Effective: September 23, 2008
Latest Legislation: House Bill 562 - 127th General Assembly
(A) No political subdivision of this state shall provide cable service over a cable system, whether bundled with other services or unbundled, except in accordance with sections 1332.01 to 1332.10 of the Revised Code.
(B)(1) No political subdivision of this state that is a public cable service provider or contracts with a public cable service provider for cable service over a cable system shall, by any means, do any of the following:
(a) Prefer or advantage any public cable service provider or discriminate against any private cable service provider in any material matter affecting the provision, within the jurisdiction of the political subdivision, of cable service over a cable system;
(b) Fail to apply any private cable service regulation without discrimination to a public cable service provider within the jurisdiction of the political subdivision;
(c) Fail to pay all applicable fees, including, but not limited to, franchise fees, permit fees, pole attachment fees, or the equivalent of any such fees;
(d) Require from a person providing video service within the jurisdiction of the political subdivision any direct or in-kind charge or a payment of any kind in exchange for PEG channel programming or other content produced by the political subdivision or by an entity created by or partially supported by the political subdivision. As used in division (B)(1)(d) of this section, "PEG channel" and "video service" have the same meanings as in section 1332.21 of the Revised Code.
(2) Nothing in division (B)(1) of this section requires the application of a private cable service regulation to a public cable service provider if that application would be without legal or practical consequence, such as the application of a private cable service regulation requiring provision of an insurance bond, which application to a public cable service provider would require it to insure its performance to itself.
(C) No political subdivision of this state that is a public cable service provider shall have extraterritorial public cable service recipients in excess of fifty per cent of the number of public cable service recipients that reside within the geographical limits of the political subdivision. Nothing in this division prohibits public cable service providers from jointly owning and operating head-end equipment. Each such public cable service provider shall pay that proportion of the full costs of owning and operating such head-end equipment, including, but not limited to, the costs of construction, acquisition, installation, improvement, enhancement, modification, financing, maintenance, repair, and operation, equal to the total population of the political subdivision that is such public cable service provider divided by the total population of all political subdivisions that are public cable service providers jointly owning and operating such head-end equipment, determined annually or with such frequency as such public cable service providers otherwise agree.
(D) No political subdivision of this state that is a franchising authority shall unreasonably withhold a request by a cable service provider to transfer, modify, or renew, in accordance with the terms of the franchise and in accordance with the provisions of the "Telecommunications Act of 1996," Pub. L. No. 104-104, Title III, Section 301(i), 110 Stat. 117, 47 U.S.C.A. 537, the "Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984," Pub. L. No. 98-549, Section 2, 98 Stat. 2790, 47 U.S.C.A. 545, or the "Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992," Pub. L. No. 102-385, Section 18, 106 Stat. 1493, 47 U.S.C.A. 546, its existing franchise to provide cable service over a cable system.