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r • M E M O R A N D U M TO: North Suburban Cable Communications Commission Burnsville/Eagan Cable Communications Commission North Central Suburban Cable Communications Commission Quad Cities Cable Communications Commission FROM: Thomas D. Creighton DATE: March 30, 1988 RE: Adult Programming/North Central Cable Company's Channel 34 I . INTRODUCTION You have requested a legal opinion regarding the Commis- sion and its member municipality ' s regulatory authority regarding Cable TV North Central ' s offering of adult pro- gramming on cable channel 34 . Below please find an analysis of the facts, a summary of the law as it relates to this issue, any legal conclusion regarding the regulatory author- ity, and alternate courses of action for the Commission and its member cities. II . FACTS Cable TV North Central ( the "Company" ) is the provider of cable service to subscribers in your various municipal- ities. The Company has modified its program offering to include adult programming on cable channel 34. The program- ming has been characterized as obscene, indecent, or other- wise pornographic by individuals communicating with your cities . The Company characterizes the programming as adult programming or "soft erotica" . The programming is not x- rated, simply because it has not been submitted to the rating boards of the motion picture industry since the pro- gramming is not shown in public theaters. The Company offers the adult programming on a pay-per- view basis.. The programming is only offered after 10:30 p.m. The adult programs are "scrambled" both in audio and video by the converter box at the subscriber terminal . Additionally, subscribers are provided with a lock-out key • which will prevent that programming from being received on the converter . For those few subscribers who connect their cable directly to a cable-ready set (a process which is difficult since the cable channels are not the same as the