This section applies to every franchisee. For purposes of this section, "franchisee" means a video service provider that is granted a franchise by a municipality in accordance with section 3008. For purposes of this section, "cable system operator," "cable television service" and "video service provider" have the same meanings as in section 3008, subsection 1‑A, except that "video service provider" includes a cable system operator that is a multichannel video programming distributor as defined in 47 United States Code, Section 522(13). For purposes of this section, "originator" means a local unit of government or the entity to which a local unit of government has assigned responsibility for managing public, educational and governmental access channels.
1.Credits and refunds for interrupti
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This section applies to every franchisee. For purposes of this section, "franchisee" means a video service provider that is granted a franchise by a municipality in accordance with section 3008. For purposes of this section, "cable system operator," "cable television service" and "video service provider" have the same meanings as in section 3008, subsection 1‑A, except that "video service provider" includes a cable system operator that is a multichannel video programming distributor as defined in 47 United States Code, Section 522(13). For purposes of this section, "originator" means a local unit of government or the entity to which a local unit of government has assigned responsibility for managing public, educational and governmental access channels.
1.
Credits and refunds for interruption of service.
Credits and refunds for interruption of video services provided by a franchisee must be as follows.
1-A.
Service cancellation.
A franchisee must discontinue billing a subscriber for a service within 2 working days after the subscriber requests to cancel that service unless the subscriber unreasonably hinders access by the franchisee to equipment of the franchisee on the premises of the subscriber to which the franchisee must have access to complete the requested cancellation of service. A franchisee shall grant a subscriber a pro rata credit or rebate for the days of the monthly billing period after the cancellation of service if that subscriber requests cancellation of service 3 or more working days before the end of the monthly billing period.
2.
Notice to subscribers regarding quality of service.
Notice to subscribers regarding quality of service must be as follows.
2-A.
Notice on subscriber bills; credits and refunds.
Every franchisee shall include on each subscriber bill for service a notice regarding the subscriber's right to a pro rata credit or rebate for interruption of service upon request in accordance with subsection 1 or cancellation of service in accordance with subsection 1‑A. The notice must include a toll-free telephone number and a telephone number accessible by a teletypewriter device or TTY for contacting the franchisee to request the pro rata credit or rebate for service interruption or service cancellation. The notice must be in nontechnical language, understandable by the general public and printed in a prominent location on the bill in boldface type.
3.
Franchise document clearinghouse.
4.
Recording subscriber complaints.
Recording subscriber complaints must be as follows.
5.
Franchises.
All franchises must be nonexclusive. All franchises must include provision for access to, and facility support transmission equipment and public, educational and governmental facility equipment necessary to make use of, one or more local public, educational and governmental access channels subject to the definitions and requirements of the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, Public Law 98-549 or related requirements or regulations of the Federal Communications Commission.
5-A.
Public, educational and governmental access channels.
A video service provider shall carry public, educational and governmental access channels on the provider's basic cable or video service offerings or tiers accessed through a cable television receiver or application. A video service provider may not separate public, educational and governmental access channels numerically from other local broadcast channels carried on the provider's basic cable or video service offerings, tiers or applications and, in the event of a franchise license transfer, shall use the same channel numbers for the public, educational and governmental access channels as used for those channels by the incumbent video service provider, unless prohibited by federal law. After the initial designation of public, educational and governmental access channel numbers, a video service provider may not change the channel numbers without the agreement of the originator, unless the change is required by federal law.
5-B.
Transmission.
5-C.
Franchise renewals.
The franchise renewal process must be conducted in compliance with 47 United States Code, Section 546 and this subsection.
5-D.
Transmission.
A video service provider shall retransmit public, educational and governmental access channel signals in the format in which they are received from the originator and at the same signal quality as that provided to all subscribers of the cable television service for local broadcast channels. A video service provider may not diminish, down convert or otherwise tamper with the signal quality or format provided by the originator. A video service provider shall deliver a public, educational or governmental access channel signal to the subscriber in a quality and format equivalent to the quality and format of local broadcast channel signals carried on the cable television service if provided as such by the originator. A video service provider shall carry each public, educational or governmental access channel in both a high definition format and a standard digital format in the same manner as that in which local broadcast channels are provided, unless prohibited by federal law.
6.
Rights of individuals.
A video service provider may not deny service, deny access or otherwise discriminate against subscribers, channel users or general citizens on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental disability, ancestry or national origin, age or familial status.
6-A.
Subscriber privacy.
A video service provider may not intrude upon the privacy of a subscriber by installing or using any equipment that allows the video service provider to observe or to listen to what is occurring in an individual subscriber's household or to monitor the viewing habits of the subscriber without express, prior written consent of the subscriber. A video service provider may not sell, disclose or otherwise make available, or permit the use of, lists of the names or addresses of its subscribers, or any list or other information that identifies by name or address subscribers or subscriber viewing habits, to any person or agency for any purpose whatsoever without the prior written consent of the subscriber except that the video service provider may make such lists available to persons performing services for the video service provider in connection with its business or operations, such as a billing service, when the availability of such lists is necessary to the performance of such services if, in either case, the persons or entity receiving such lists agree in writing that they will not permit them to be made available to any other party.
6-B.
Late fees.
A video service provider may not charge a late fee or other penalty or charge for late payment of any bill that exceeds 1.5% per month of the amount due in the bill. If the bill includes separate charges for different levels of service, a late fee or other penalty or charge must be calculated on the total amount overdue for all levels of service and may not be calculated separately for each level of service. A payment is not late under this subsection until at least 30 days after those services to which the late fee applies have been received by the consumer.
7.
Penalty.
A violation of any provision of this section is a violation of Title 5, chapter 10.
8.
Filing of franchise agreements.
A video service provider that maintains a publicly accessible website shall post on that website a copy of the most recently executed franchise agreement for each franchise that it has been granted by a municipality in the State.