CABLE PROVIDERS MAY ELECT TO TERMINATE LOCAL FRANCHISES AND SEEK A STATE-ISSUED CERTIFICATE OF FRANCHISE AUTHORITY
The Texas Municipal League and the Texas Cable Association recently met and decided to jointly prepare a question-and-answer memo relating to recent legislation that permits cable companies to terminate certain “grandfathered” cable franchise ordinances.
As reported in the June 3 edition of the Legislative Update, S.B. 1087 is a bill that authorizes incumbent cable providers (e.g., the cable company with the most subscribers in a city) to terminate an existing local cable franchise in order to seek a state-issued certificate of franchise authority (SICFA). The SICFA was created by legislation in 2005 and authorizes a cable company to serve a city without obtaining a local franchise. The jointly-prepared question-and-answer memo is available at http://www.tml.org/legal_pdf/SB1087_Q&A.pdf.
