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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes May 9, 2006 Page 3 I also worked with St. Paul to develop a common agreement to make it easer to administer the 2 agreement. They are now making money on the institutional network. 3 4 Ms. Wilson announced that it is the 15`h anniversary of CTV as the documents were signed 15 5 years ago in April to transfer the equipment and management to the NSCC. Since then, they 6 have grown and been a value to the community. Ms. Wilson advised of the current number of 7 producers, volunteers, and programs broadcast, which included election coverage, parades and 8 festivals, local and high school sports, concerts, and other programming. In addition, they have 9 retooled and launched web streaming and are pleased with the results. It is their goals to do 10 another web streaming upgrade over the summer and unveil Version 2 in September or October 11 of this year. 12 13 Ms. Wilson stated they will look at a proposal from an engineering firm to do a strategic plan for 14 the institutional network that is heavily used by communities and universities. She explained the 15 need to assure they can keep up with those needs, which does not necessarily mean the entire 16 network will be rebuilt at one time but goals will be established. Their goal is to get more fiber 17 into the network because many school districts still have coaxial cable in their network. 18 19 Ms. Wilson explained that the NSAC and CTV are also trying to keep up with the evolution of 20 society and will be tapeless by the end of this year. They will eliminate the use of VHS and Beta 21 tape and go with M2 and digital transfers playing from the server. Beyond that they will look at 22 what it means to become a community media center. Ms. Wilson stated many people are into 23 blogging, pod comcasting, and vloging and CTV wants to be relevant to the younger generation 24 to keep them involved and transmit programming in ways they understand and will be 25 accessible. 26 27 Ms. Wilson advised there was some minor State legislation but it did not pass and it does not 28 look like it will go anywhere. Next year, it is expected that Qwest will be back with a bill to 29 transfer all cable franchising and video franchising to the State level. She explained that Verison 30 and ATT have been successful in many States in getting that move approved. Ms. Wilson stated 31 they will be tracking that legislation and probably opposing that attempt. She explained they 32 have seen attempts by Verison and ATT to get cities out of the way because they have decided 33 cities are obstacles and they do not want to have to provide community television. Ms. Wilson 34 advised of the bill's progress through the House and Senate that would create a national 35 franchise, eliminating the local franchise. She also advised of the proposed process to obtain a 36 national franchise, explaining that due to the requirement for a 30 day consideration, the FCC 37 will not have time to look at financial, technical or legal qualifications. In addition, as soon as a 38 company applies for a national franchise and is serving one, then the incumbent provider can 39 make application. This means that CTV's income will go from just over a million dollars to 40 about $218,000. Ms. Wilson stated on that income the CTV could continue to exist in some 41 fashion but it would not be in the fashion it is today and wouldn't be able to provide election or 42 community event coverage, or mobile production trucks. It would be a drastic cut. 43 44 Ms. Wilson stated that even though the bills says the city can manage the right -of -way and 45 enforce regulations over right -of -way, any appeals by a national franchise holder would go to the 46 FCC and not the local community. Also, there is no requirement for a national franchise holder 47 to build out the entire community so they can pick and chose their location, looking for high