May 2009 TVSA Monthly Report
Telecom & Video Services Agency Report
May 18, 2009
Thank you for this opportunity to highlight some of the things that the Telecom & Video Services Agency has been involved with recently.
FRANCHISE FEES
During the third week of March our office found out that the cable lobby was proposing legislation to reduce their franchise fee amounts paid to the City by 2%. Evidently, the cable lobby wanted to have this amount to use the City public right-of-way offset in the form of a tax to the satellite provider companies who do not use the right-of-way. We advised OCC of the proposal. It was Senate Bill 541. OFM later reported back to us and OCC after they did a cost analysis of the measure that it Indianapolis would stand to lose approximately $1.5M per year due to a reduction of video franchise fees provided in this language. Therefore OFM recommended not supporting the Bill as we had earlier conveyed.
BRIGHT HOUSE FRANCHISE FEE REVIEW
Counsel has shared the Bright House Franchise Fee complaint covering the 2004-2006 audit period with Bright House Network’s local counsel Ice-Miller. Depending upon their response, OCC will then file the complaint before the IURC.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE
Our office has been keeping the Board updated as to the Agency’s Economic Development Initiative to utilize department resources to promote Indianapolis . The latest update for the Speedway Redevelopment program is that it is being delayed after the targeted May 18 launch date.
PUBLIC SERVICE DROPS
The Clerk’s Office request for a public service drop is being packaged as part of the IURC petition/complaint per OCC. Back in January the Clerk’s Office requested the drop and Bright House refused the request unless the City ‘paid up front’ which is contrary to State Law.
BROADBAND STIMULUS PACKAGE
TVSA has been advising ISA and the Mayor’s Office to what the City may be eligible for regarding the broadband portion of the stimulus package. It is our understanding that ISA did meet with Bright House to discuss possibilities with respect to the Broadband Stimulus package. There are many opportunities to fund Wi-Fi, Wide Area Network and public safety telecom applications that are municipal within the description of the broadband stimulus.
WHEELER MISSION
Department staff has been meeting with Wheeler Mission folks to discuss how we might partner with them to promote volunteerism and other civic involvement. Through WFYI’s cooperation, we have taken a segment from Across Indiana that was done on Wheeler Mission and placed it on our video server. Consequently, Wheeler Mission has been able to use the link to send e-mails to inform and educate about the services they provide.
Separate to that, we our working with Wheeler to produce a short evergreen video that we will air and place on our server. Wheeler, in turn will utilize the end product to promote itself similar to what we had done before with the Children’s Guardian Home in Irvington . We recently reached out to Gleaner’s Food Bank to obtain two videos that they had done in-house to place on our video server in an attempt to create more public awareness for them.
2010 BUDGET DISCUSSIONS
Our department staff has been discussing and attending budget prep meetings with the Controller’s Office (OFM) for the 2010 budget. OFM considers this a three year budget plan for the City and has reduced our budget an additional 5%, as it has other agencies. Most of our reductions come from CITY TV’s character 4 budget which is for equipment acquisition. As time goes by and expenses are needed, the way to supplant that character 4 reduction is to replenish our PEG Grant Fund via the State Law funding opportunities. The department budget for 2010 will be $621,667 compared to our present budget of $633,188.