South Carolina § 58-12-370 - Public, educational, and governmental (PEG) access channels; utilization requirements; interconnection with incumbent cable provider.

§ 58-12-370. Public, educational, and governmental (PEG) access channels; utilization requirements; interconnection with incumbent cable provider.

(A) Not later than one hundred twenty days after a request by a municipality or county, the holder of a state-issued certificate of franchise authority shall provide each municipality or county in which it provides cable or video service with capacity in its network to allow PEG access channels for noncommercial programming consistent with this section.

(B) Except as otherwise provided in Section 58-12-310, the holder of a state-issued certificate of franchise authority shall provide the same number of PEG access channels a municipality or county has activated under the incumbent cable service provider's franchise agreement as of the date of the holder's application or amended application for a state-issued certificate of franchise authority. If a municipality or county did not have PEG access channels as of the date of the holder's application or amended application for a state-issued certificate of franchise authority, the cable or video service provider shall furnish, upon written request by that municipality or county, up to three PEG channels, one of which may be used by the municipality or county without restrictions relating to repeat programming. No cable or video service provider shall be required to provide more than three PEG access channels on its cable system or video service network. Municipalities, counties, and cable or video service providers must cooperate in the sharing of channel capacity to provide PEG access for municipalities and counties served by the cable system or video service network.

(C) Any PEG channel above the one unrestricted channel provided pursuant to this section that is not utilized by the municipality or county for at least eight hours a day may no longer be made available to the municipality or county but may be programmed at the cable or video service provider's discretion. At such time as the municipality or county can certify to the cable or video service provider a schedule for at least eight hours of daily programming, the cable or video service provider must restore the previously lost channel but is under no obligation to carry that channel on a basic or analog tier.

(D) If a municipality or county has not utilized the maximum number of additional access channels as permitted by subsection (B), access to the additional channel capacity allowed in subsection (B) may be provided upon a one-hundred-twenty-day request only if the municipality or county can demonstrate that all activated PEG channels are "substantially utilized". PEG channels must be considered "substantially utilized" when eight hours are programmed on that channel each calendar day. In addition, at least forty percent of the eight hours of programming for each business day on average over each calendar quarter must be nonrepeat programming.

(E) The operation of any PEG access channel provided pursuant to this section is the responsibility of the municipality, the county, or the Educational Television Commission receiving the benefit of the channel, and the holder of a state-issued certificate of franchise authority bears only the responsibility for the transmission of the channel. The holder of a state-issued certificate of franchise authority must be responsible for providing the connectivity to each PEG access channel distribution point up to the first two hundred feet.

(F) The municipality, the county, or the Educational Television Commission shall ensure that all transmissions of content and programming provided by or arranged by them to be transmitted over a PEG channel by a holder of a state-issued certificate of franchise authority are provided and submitted to the cable or video service provider in a manner or form that is capable of being accepted and transmitted by the provider over its network without further alteration or change in the content or transmission signal, and which is compatible with the technology or protocol utilized by the cable or video service provider to deliver its cable or video services.

(G) Where technically feasible, the holder of a state-issued certificate of franchise authority and an incumbent cable service provider must use reasonable efforts to interconnect their cable systems or video service networks, or both, on mutually acceptable and reasonable terms for the purpose of providing PEG programming. Interconnection may be accomplished by direct cable microwave link, satellite, or other reasonable method of connection. Holders of a state-issued certificate of franchise authority and incumbent cable service providers shall negotiate in good faith, and incumbent cable service providers may not unreasonably withhold interconnection of PEG channels.

(H) A holder of a state-issued certificate of franchise authority is not required to interconnect for, or otherwise to transmit, PEG content that is branded with the logo, name, or other identifying marks of another cable or video service provider, and a municipality or county may require a cable or video service provider to remove its logo, name, or other identifying marks from PEG content that is to be made available to another provider.

HISTORY: 2006 Act No. 288, SECTION 4, eff May 23, 2006; 2007 Act No. 8, SECTION 2, eff March 30, 2007.