TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager to allocate Public, Education, and Government (PEG) fee revenue equally among the three categories of cable access providers, each receiving one-third of the total available; and authorize City Manager to enter into an agreement with the Long Beach Community Foundation for a period of two years and commit PEG funds reserved for Public Access television as a match to secure operational funding, up to $225,000 a year, from the Knight Foundation’s Community Information Challenge Grant. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
The enactment of the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006 (DIVCA) marked a major change in the regulation of video service providers in California. Essentially, DIVCA replaced the local franchising process with a State process under the authority of the California Public Utilities Commission. DIVCA changes included the enabling of the PEG fee and the elimination of the requirement that a local cable operator provide Public Access facilities and support.
In September 2007, the City Council adopted an ordinance setting the City’s PEG fee at 1.04 percent of the cable providers’ gross revenue. Per DIVCA, the fee is to support PEG channel facilities and is restricted to capital uses. It cannot be used for operational expenses such as staffing. If it is used for any activity other than capital, the local cable/video providers can deduct that amount from franchise fee payments to the City.
PEG Fee Revenue Allocation
In January 2010, the City Council approved equal distribution of 2009 PEG revenue to all three cable access categories: Public (“P”); Education (“E”, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach City College, and Long Beach Unified School District); and Government (“G”, City access channel, LBTV). The City has received reports from the recipients on how the funds were spent and has deemed they were consistent with the legal intent. The funds allocated to the City enabled ...
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