Code of Vermont Rules › Agency 30 - PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION › Sub-Agency 000 - GENERAL › Chapter 8000 - CABLE TELEVISION › Section 30 000 8000 - CABLE TELEVISION

Current through June, 2024
8.000 CABLE TELEVISION
8.100 Definitions.
For purposes of this rule, the following definitions apply. For terms not defined here, refer to the federal cable act (Title 47 U.S.C. §
											521 et seq.).
(A) Access channel: a channel made available by an operator that is used to cablecast non-commercial programming created or acquired for public, educational, or governmental purposes pursuant to this Rule. Access channels are sometimes referred to as public, educational, and government channels, or "PEG" channels.
(B) Access management organization, or AMO: a nonprofit entity apart from the cable television operator designated to receive PEG access support through the cable operator and contracted to manage public, educational, and governmental access channels and facilities for non-commercial purposes.
(C) Activated channel: a channel engineered at the headend of a cable system for the provision of services generally available to residential subscribers of the cable system, regardless of whether such services actually are provided, including any channel designated for public, educational, or governmental use.
(D) Basic cable service: any service tier that includes the retransmission of local television broadcast signals (may also include other signals).
(E) Commission: the Vermont Public Utility Commission.
(F) Billing dispute: a disagreement between a subscriber and cable television company concerning:
(1) credits for payments made by the subscriber to the cable television company;
(2) credit refund for service outage;
(3) errors in billing amount; or
(4) assessment of non-recurring charges such as disconnection fees, service calls, and late charges.
(G) Business office: the office of the cable television company where a subscriber or others may make inquiries regarding bills, line extensions, and company rules and regulations; request service; pay bills, either in person or by mail; or bring disputes and complaints.
(H) Cable company: as defined in   30 V.S.A. §
											501, a person, firm, partnership, corporation, association, joint stock association, or company which owns or operates a cable system in this state, except non-profits systems serving fewer than 100 subscribers.
(I) Cable operator: the operator of a cable system, also referred to as "operator."
(J) Cable service area, or service area: a geographic area within which a cable system has the right to provide cable service to the public. Such boundaries may include areas into which extension of service is not immediately feasible but may be in the future.
(K) Cable television system, or cable system: a facility meeting the definition in   30 V.S.A. §
											501 or 47 U.S.C. §
											522 and subject to the regulation of the Commission.
(L) Capacity: portion of electromagnetic frequency spectrum used for commercial and public purposes.
(M) Channel or cable channel: a portion of the electromagnetic frequency spectrum that is used in a cable system and which is capable of delivering a television channel as that term is defined by the Federal Communication Commission regulations.
(N) Collection charge: a fee or charge imposed upon a subscriber by a cable television company for its efforts at collecting or attempting to collect a past due account.
(O) Department: the Vermont Department of Public Service.
(P) Educational access channel: an access channel designated for non-commercial educational purposes.
(Q) Governmental access channel: an access channel designated for non-commercial civic purposes.
(R) Institutional network or I-Net: a communication network that is constructed or maintained by the cable operator and that is made available to educational or governmental institutions.
(S) Late charge: a charge that is added to a cable television subscriber's account or bill for non-payment of a previously due account.
(T) Leased access: use of the Leased Access Channel.
(U) Leased access channel: a channel, available for a charge, for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
(V) Live origination program: PEG content cablecast from cable company head end or remote origination site while it is taking place.
(W) Local origination: the creation of programming cablecast by the cable operator.
(X) Local presentation: request by an institution or individual living or working within the cable service area to transmit PEG content using cable channels or capacity, whether or not that PEG content was produced using PEG access facilities.
(Y) Local use: non-commercial use of PEG channels and capacity by residents of the State of Vermont, including schools and not-for-profit educational institutions, and local and state governments or agencies thereof.
(Z) PEG: Public, educational, governmental.
(AA) PEG content: any non-commercial voice, video, or information made available by members of the public, educational institutions, local or state government, or an AMO and distributed through PEG channels or cable system capacity set aside for such purposes.
(BB) PEG facilities: includes equipment and studio space necessary for community members to produce, post-produce and distribute any PEG content from the cable company head end and remote origination sites to the system's cable subscribers.
(CC) PEG AMO service territory: the area for which the AMO has responsibility, and upon whose gross annual revenues the cable operator bases the calculation of that area's PEG AMO's annual support.
(DD) Premium channel or service: an optional channel to which a customer may subscribe for an additional monthly charge, e.g., HBO or Showtime.
(EE) Promotional offerings: special discounted service offerings that are made available or promoted for no more than six months.
(FF) Public access channel: an access channel designated for non-commercial use by the public on a first come, first served basis.
(GG) Remote origination site: a source of PEG content that is physically some distance from, but configured to transmit signal to, the cable company headend for distribution over the cable system.
(HH) Service outage: a loss of video or audio signals on one half or more of the basic channels or on one or more premium channels which is not caused by the subscriber's television receiver or by the subscriber.
(II) Service tier: a group of channels sold as a package.