1. Not later than one hundred eighty days after a request by a municipality in which a competitive cable service provider or a competitive video service provider is providing cable service or video service, the holder of the certificate of authority for that municipality shall designate a sufficient amount of capacity on the certificate holder’s communications network to allow the provision of a comparable number of public, educational, and governmental channels that the incumbent cable provider in the municipality has activated and provided in the municipality under the terms of a franchise agreement with a municipality prior to July 1, 2007. If no such channels are active, the municipality may request a maximum of three public, educational, and governmental channels for a municipality with a population of at least fifty thousand, and a maximum of two public, educational, and governmental channels for a municipality with a population of less than fifty thousand.

 a. The public, educational, and governmental content to be provided pursuant to this section and the operation of the public, educational, and governmental channels shall be the responsibility of the municipality receiving the benefit of such capacity. The holder of a certificate of franchise authority shall be responsible only for the transmission of such content, subject to technological restraints.
 b. The municipality receiving capacity under this section shall ensure that all transmissions, content, or programming to be transmitted by the holder of the certificate of franchise authority are provided or submitted to the competitive cable service provider or competitive video service provider in a manner or form that is capable of being accepted and transmitted by the competitive cable service provider or competitive video service provider, without requirement for additional alteration or change in the content, over the particular network of the competitive cable service provider or competitive video service provider, which is compatible with the technology or protocol utilized by the competitive cable service provider or competitive video service provider to deliver services. At its election the municipality may reasonably request any cable service provider or video service provider to make any necessary change to the form of any programming, furnished for transmission, which shall be charged to the municipality, not to exceed the provider’s incremental costs. The municipality shall have up to twelve months to reimburse the cable service provider or video service provider. The provision of such transmissions, content, or programming to the competitive cable service provider or competitive video service provider shall constitute authorization for such holder to carry such transmissions, content, or programming, at the holder’s option, beyond the jurisdictional boundaries stipulated in any franchise agreement.

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Terms Used In Iowa Code 477A.6

  • Cable service: means the same as defined in 47 U. See Iowa Code 477A.1
  • Certificate: means a certificate of title. See Iowa Code 462A.2
  • Competitive cable service provider: means a person who provides cable service over a cable system in an area other than the incumbent cable provider providing service in the same area. See Iowa Code 477A.1
  • Competitive video service provider: means a person who provides video service other than a cable operator. See Iowa Code 477A.1
  • Franchise: means an initial authorization, or renewal of an authorization, issued by the board or a municipality, regardless of whether the authorization is designated as a franchise, permit, license, resolution, contract, certificate, agreement, or otherwise, that authorizes the construction and operation of a cable system or video service provider's network in a public right-of-way. See Iowa Code 477A.1
  • Incumbent cable provider: means the cable operator serving the largest number of cable subscribers in a particular franchise service area on January 1, 2007. See Iowa Code 477A.1
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Municipality: means a city. See Iowa Code 477A.1
  • Use: means to operate, navigate, or employ a vessel. See Iowa Code 462A.2
  • Video service: means video programming services provided by a competitive video service provider through wireline facilities owned, controlled, constructed, or operated by the provider of such video service and located at least in part in the public right-of-way without regard to delivery technology, including internet protocol technology. See Iowa Code 477A.1
 2. Where technically feasible, a competitive cable service provider or competitive video service provider that is a holder of a certificate of franchise authority and an incumbent cable provider shall use reasonable efforts to interconnect the cable or video communications network systems of the certificate holder and incumbent cable provider for the purpose of providing public, educational, and governmental programming. Interconnection may be accomplished by direct cable, microwave link, satellite, or other reasonable method of connection. A holder of a certificate of franchise authority and an incumbent cable provider shall negotiate in good faith and an incumbent cable provider shall not withhold interconnection of public, educational, or governmental channels.
 3. A court of competent jurisdiction shall have exclusive jurisdiction to enforce any requirement under this section.