Cable television franchises in California

Includes bibliographical references (pages 108-123)This study analyzed the contents of the local ordinances governing the operation of cable television in California. A model set of criteria was developed from the study that was used to compare and evaluate the local ordinances. The California ordinances averaged less than 47 percent compliance with the basic criteria that was determined should be included in every ordinance. Compliance ranged from a high of 94 percent to a low of 14 percent. It was found that the criteria which benefited the franchise authority were more fully complied with than the criteria for the benefit of the consumer by 92 percent to 42 percent. When all the major market ordinances were compared, they met 56 percent of the criteria as opposed to 44 percent for the areas outside the major markets. When a comparison was made of the systems in the study, it was found that more criteria were met by communities ranking larger in population than those of smaller size, but when the franchise authority size indicated by population represented was computed, it was found that the larger the franchise authority size, the less criteria were met. Less criteria were met by systems with fewer subscribers and number of channels. When the franchise authority was the city, the ordinances met more criteria than when the franchise authority was the county. As the period of adoption of the ordinances becomes more recent, there is a definite increase in the total criteria that the ordinance meets. The major conclusion of this study is that the cable television ordinances in California are poorly written and designed to protect and support the franchise authority and not to protect the consumer. In comparing the ordinances against the criteria established in this study, it was found that the majority of the ordinances are outdated and in need of revision. The majority of the communities have not re-evaluated their cable ordinances in light of changed federal regulations. The failure of the ordinances to meet the criteria set forth in this study can be attributed to each of the governmental layers in this complicated system of multijurisdictional regulations and on the vacillating nature of the FCC. This jurisdictional problem between the federal state and the local authority must still be settled. It was found that the state guidelines for the franchise authority are inadequate to control those areas that have not been preempted by the FCC. Failure to meet the minimum criteria formulated in this study indicates that, even if all the new federal requirements were met by the deadline of March 31, 1977, the ordinances would still be inadequate to meet minimum standards as set forth in this study