§ 477A.7 — Fees — financial support

Iowa § 477A.7

• Jurisdiction: Iowa
• Title XI: NATURAL RESOURCES
• Ch. 477A: CABLE OR VIDEO SERVICE FRANCHISES

Text

1. a. In any service area in which a competitive cable or video service provider holding
a certificate of franchise authority offers or provides cable or video service, the competitive
cable or video service provider shall calculate and pay a franchise fee to the municipality
with authority to grant a certificate of franchise authority in that service area upon the
municipality’s written request. If the municipality makes such a request, the franchise fee
shall be due and paid to the municipality on a quarterly basis, not later than forty-five days
after the close of the quarter, and shall be calculated as a percentage of gross revenues. The
municipality shall not demand any additional franchise fees from the competitive cable or
video service provider, and shall not demand the use of any other calculation method for the
franchise fee.
b. All cable and video service providers shall pay a franchise fee at the same percent of
gross revenues as had been assessed on the incumbent cable provider by the municipality
as of January 1, 2007, and such percentage shall continue to apply for the period of the
remaining term of the existing franchise agreement with the municipality. Upon expiration
of the period of the remaining term of the agreement with the incumbent cable service
provider, a municipality may request an increase in the franchise fee up to five percent of
gross revenues.
c. A provider who is both a competitive cable and a video service provider shall be subject
to and only be required to pay one franchise fee to a municipality under this subsection
regardless of whether the provider provides both cable service and video service.
d. At the request of a municipality and not more than once per year, an independent
auditor may perform reasonable audits of the competitive cable or video service provider’s
calculation of the franchise fee under this subsection. The municipality shall bear the costs of
anyauditrequestedpursuanttothissubsection,unlesstheauditdisclosesthatthecompetitive
cable or video service provider has underpaid franchise fees by more than five percent, in
which case the competitive cable or video service provider shall pay all of the reasonable and
actual costs of the audit.
e. A competitive cable or video service provider may identify and collect the amount of
the franchise fee as a separate line item on the regular bill of each subscriber.
2. If an incumbent cable provider pays any fee to a municipality for public, educational,
and governmental access channels, any subsequent holder of a certificate of franchise
authority that includes that municipality shall pay this fee at the same rate during the
remaining term of the existing franchise agreement with the municipality, even if the
incumbent cable provider elects to convert to a certificate of franchise authority pursuant
to section 477A.2. All fees collected pursuant to this subsection shall be used only for the
support of the public, educational, and governmental access channels.
3. a. If an incumbent cable provider is required by a franchise agreement as of January 1,
§477A.7, CABLE OR VIDEO SERVICE FRANCHISES 8
2007, to provide institutional network capacity to a municipality for use by the municipality
for noncommercial purposes, the incumbent cable provider and any subsequent holder of
a certificate of franchise authority shall provide support only for the existing institutional
network on a pro rata basis per customer. Any financial support provided for an institutional
network shall be limited to ongoing maintenance and support of the existing institutional
network. This subsection shall be applicable only to a cable or video service provider’s
first certificate of franchise authority issued under this chapter, and shall not apply to any
subsequent renewals. For the purposes of this subsection, maintenance and support shall
only include the reasonable incremental cost of moves, changes, and restoring connectivity
of the fiber or coaxial cable lines up to a demarcation point at the building.
b. For purposes of this subsection, the number of customers of a cable or video service
provider shall be determined based on the relative number of subscribers in that municipality
at the end of the prior calendar year as reported to the municipality by all incumbent cable
providers and holders of a certificate of franchise authority. Any records showing the
number of subscribers shall be considered confidential records pursuant to section 22.7.
The incumbent cable provider shall provide to the municipality, on an annual basis, the
maintenance and support costs of the institutional network, subject to an independent audit.
A municipality acting under this subsection shall notify and present a bill to competitive
cable or video service providers for the amount of such support on an annual basis, beginning
one year after issuance of the certificate of franchise authority. The annual institutional
network support shall be due and paid by the providers to the municipality in four quarterly
payments, not later than forty-five days after the close of each quarter. The municipality
shall reimburse the incumbent cable provider for the amounts received from competitive
cable or video service providers.
c. This subsection shall not apply if the incumbent cable service provider is a municipal
utility providing telecommunications services under section 388.10.
4. A franchise fee may be assessed or imposed by a municipality without regard to the
municipality’s cost of inspecting, supervising, or otherwise regulating the franchise, and the
fees collected may be credited to the municipality’s general fund and used for municipal
general fund purposes.
5. To the extent that any amount of franchise fees assessed by and paid to a municipality
prior to May 29, 2007, pursuant to a franchise agreement between a municipality and any
person to erect, maintain, and operate plants and systems for cable television, exceeds
the municipality’s reasonable costs of inspecting, supervising, or otherwise regulating the
franchise, such amount is deemed and declared to be authorized and legally assessed by
and paid to the municipality.