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REGMEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION tiA.N y. q r. F U Kam\ P PREPARED BY Richard E. Lay, Dep. City Atty. DATE May 221 1979PHONE SUBJECT 714/834 -4900 CABLE TELEVISION FRANCHISE APPLICATION OF SIX -STAR CABLEVISION, INC. DATE OF COUNCI f_ ACTION C E - IKof,HECO;NCIL RECUMMENDEO AC:rION : That, at the conclusion of the public hearing, the Council take t e following actions: 1. Deny Six -Star Cablevision's current application, with an invitation to Six -Star Cablevision to renew its application at such time as the Council may request proposals in a competitive format from all interested cable television operators. 2. Instruct the City Attorney to prepare an amendment to the Municipal Code to limit cable television franchise applications to a competitive "request for proposals" format under the following conditions: (a) No applications to be received until such time as the council directs that proposals be requested. (b) An application fee to be required in an amount sufficient to cover the costs to the City of retaining a professional consultant for the evaluation of applicants and other expenses incidental to the processing of applications. BACKGROUND: CATV ( "Community Antenna Television "), also known as "Cable Television ", is a system by which television signals are transmitted to subscribers throughout a service area by cables running from a central receiver, as an alternative to individual antenna reception. CATV should be distinguished from the term "pay television" which refers to a special charge for particular program or channel reception. Both CATV and regular airwave television can provide "pay television" programming, along with ordinary commercial channels. Six -Star Cablevision filed an application for a CATV franchise last year. The application was set for hearing by the Council as an accomodation to Six -Star, which needed such an expression of interest by the City in 1978 for its own financial reasons. The hearing has been continued from time to time to allow for consideration of the question of the extent to which undergrounding of cables should be required. Six -Star has filed a draft report which states that it is financially infeasible for it to underground its cables except in areas and developments where other utility lines are required to be undergrounded. (All cable television companies string their overhead cables by leasing space from telephone and electric power utilities, thus using the preexisting utility poles to the extent possible) In the past month or so, numerous other cable television companies have expressed a similar interest in obtaining a franchise. One of these, American Television & Communications Corp. (ATC), has expressed the intent to file an application in the near future. In view of the previous, long- standing lack of interest in Santa Ana as a possible cable television market, this sudden rush of potential applicants was not anticipated by staff. � _urraH m b mil'