CFR

76.1511—Fees.

An open video system operator may be subject to the payment of fees on the gross revenues of the operator for the provision of cable service imposed by a local franchising authority or other governmental entity, in lieu of the franchise fees permitted under Section 622 of the Communications Act. Local governments shall have the authority to assess and receive the gross revenue fee. Gross revenues under this paragraph means all gross revenues received by an open video system operator or its affiliates, including all revenues received from subscribers and all carriage revenues received from unaffiliated video programming providers. In addition gross revenues under this paragraph includes any advertising revenues received by an open video system operator or its affiliates in connection with the provision of video programming, where such revenues are included in the calculation of the incumbent cable operator's cable franchise fee. Gross revenues does not include revenues collected by unaffiliated video programming providers, such as subscriber or advertising revenues. Any gross revenues fee that the open video system operator or its affiliate collects from subscribers or video programming providers shall be excluded from gross revenues. An operator of an open video system or any programming provider may designate that portion of a subscriber's bill attributable to the fee as a separate item on the bill. An operator of an open video system may recover the gross revenue fee from programming providers on a proportional basis as an element of the carriage rate.

[61 FR 43177, Aug. 21, 1996]

Tips