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House committee version of SB 117 preserves local video franchising for most Ohio communities

Source: http://www.callahansclevelanddiary.com/?p=284

Well, you just never know, do you?

The House Public Utilities Committee unanimously approved a heavily amended version of Substitute Senate Bill 117 yesterday evening, after a full afternoon of closed-door caucuses. Evidently the weeks of lobbying by cities, public access and consumer groups were worth the effort, because the Committee sent the full House a much more reasonable bill than it received from the Senate.

The Governor got real oversight power for his Commerce Department, which will now be able to levy fines and even terminate the franchises of state Video Service Providers that violate the new law’s requirements on buildout, redlining, reporting or customer service. Cities and public access advocates represented by Local Voice Ohio got significant improvements in the franchise fee and PEG channel rules that will apply to state-franchised video providers.

But most important, the Committee adopted an amendment proposed by Rep. Louis Blessing (R-Cinci) that allows an incumbent cable company to “opt out” of a municipal franchise and switch to a state Video Service Authorization only when 25% of the residents in the franchise community have access to a competing wireline video service. In other words, if there’s no real competition, there’s no switching to the state franchising system.

The Blessing amendment, if it survives the House-Senate conference process, will preserve local cable franchising for the majority of Ohio communities (those that don’t get their phone service from AT&T) , as well as AT&T communities that don’t get targeted for “U-Verse” fiber-enhanced broadband video service. Since Cleveland is likely to fall in the latter category, the Blessing amendment probably means that Time Warner will have to negotiate a new franchise with Cleveland City Council after all.
Something tells me the cable companies are going to be very unhappy about this turn of events — which is why it ain’t over till the conference committee sings. But the House will pass the Committee version in a day or two, and then AT&T will have every reason to push for a quick reconciliation and final adoption, no matter how unhappy that makes Time Warner.

(Left on the Committee’s cutting-room floor: Rep. Mike Foley’s anti-abandonment language and “Connect Ohio” . The Blessing amendment probably makes the abandonment issue moot, at least for a while. Connect Ohio will be back.)