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Before the
               Federal Communications Commission
                     Washington, D.C. 20554
In the Matter of
TIMES MIRROR CABLE
TELEVISION OF ORANGE
COUNTY, INC. d/b/a
DIMENSION CABLE SERVICES
Appeals of Local Rate Orders
of the Following Cities:
           Dana Point, California
           Laguna Niguel, California
           Lake Forest, California
           Mission Viejo, California
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File No. CSB-A-0015
CUID Nos. CA0549 and CA0652
CUID No. CA0316
CUID No. CA1070
CUID Nos. CA0192 and CA0135
        MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER ON RECONSIDERATION
       Adopted:  March 19, 2001         Released:  March 21, 2001
By the Deputy Chief, Cable Services Bureau:
     I.   introduction
1.     Cox Cable Orange County, Inc., formerly Times Mirror Cable Television of Orange County,
Inc. d/b/a Dimension Cable Services ("Dimension" or "operator") filed a petition for reconsideration of
a Consolidated Order issued by the Chief, Cable Services Bureau, on June 1, 1995 ("Bureau Order").
The Order denied, in part, and dismissed, in part, the operator's appeals of four separate rate orders
issued by the above cities that disallowed Dimension's inclusion of franchise fees as a portion of
equipment revenue on FCC Form 393.  The City of Laguna Niguel ("City") filed an opposition to the
petition for reconsideration and Dimension filed a reply.
II.  ANALYSIS AND DECISION
2.     Dimension contends that the Cities improperly excluded a portion of its franchise fees  from
Dimension's cable rate justification calculations.  The operator included $33,703 of franchise fees as part
of its equipment revenue on Line 204 of Worksheet 2, in Part II of its Forms 393.  Including franchise
fees or portions thereof in Line 204 has the effect of increasing the operator's base rate per channel as of
September 30, 1992, which may result in a higher maximum rate.  The Commission's rules contemplate
recovery of franchise fees as an external cost in addition to the maximum permitted rates calculated on
Form 393. The Bureau Order upheld the positions of the Cities and found that if franchise fees are
included in both the base from which maximum rates are calculated and permitted as an addition to
maximum permitted rates as a pass-through, the operator would recover those costs twice. Dimension
asserts that the Commission structured its benchmark rates to exclude the franchise fee expense on
programming service revenues, but not the franchise fee expense on equipment revenues.  The operator
contends that the Cities' exclusion of franchise fees from its equipment revenue resulted in a substantial
understatement of its base rate per channel. The operator further argues that nowhere in the Form 393 is
an operator required to reduce the monthy equipment revenue calculation by the amount of revenue
allocable to franchise fees; that while Form 393 instructions direct operators to "back out" the portion of
service revenues allocable to franchise fees, there is no similar instruction with respect to equipment
revenues; that it appears that the Commission later corrected this anomaly in its Form 1200; and that the
Commission has not addressed the merits of its appeal of the Cities' treatment of its franchise fee
calculation methodology.
3.     We affirm our earlier conclusion in the Bureau Order and agree with the Cities that allowing
Dimension to include within line 204 of Form 393 equipment revenue allocable to franchise fees would
yield a double recovery for the operator, once for the amount that effectively became imbedded in Line
204 as the base and again as franchise fees are added as a pass through to the maximum permitted rate.
Moreover, we note that the instructions for Line 104 of Worksheet 1 and Line 204 of Worksheet 2, Form
393, expressly provide that the monthly average equipment revenue as of September 30, 1992 is
calculated by taking the total revenues earned over the preceding fiscal year for the community unit for
the following categories of equipment and installation services: (1) converter box rental; (2) remote
control rental; (3) additional outlet fees; (4) installation fees; (5) disconnect fees; reconnect fees; and (7)
tier changing fees, and that the total revenues are then divided by 12 to compute the equipment revenue
per month.  Thus, the instructions do not allow the inclusion of franchise fees or other items.
Additionally, a Commission Public Notice: "Cable Television Rate Regulation, Questions and Answers
Relating to FCC Form 393" (released July 30, 1993), at Question and Answer 8 addresses whether or not
the seven categories of equipment and installation services listed in the instructions are intended to be
exhaustive.  The answer specifically states that the categories of equipment and installation described in
the instructions to Line 104 are exhaustive; that no other items should be included; that these were the
categories the Commission included in the cable rate survey which was used to develop the benchmarks
against which current rates will be compared; and that in order to ensure a proper comparison, the same
categories must be used in Line 104.
IV.       ORDERING CLAUSES
4.     For the foregoing reasons, IT IS ORDERED, that the Petition for Reconsideration filed by
Cox Cable Orange County, Inc., formerly Times Mirror Cable Television of Orange County, Inc., d/b/a
Dimension Cable Services, IS DENIED.
5.       This action is taken pursuant to authority delegated under Section 0.321 of the
Commission's rules, 47 C.F.R.   0.321.
                              FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
                              William H. Johnson
                              Deputy Chief
                              Cable Services Bureau