HB 6460 Summary

• Requires third-party nonprofit community access providers serving five or more municipalities (one with population over 100,000) to grant written consent within three business days to towns requesting to operate education and government public access channels and engage cable companies for programming distribution.

• Authorizes the Department of Public Utility Control to terminate a nonprofit provider's service agreement and reopen the application process if written consent is not provided within three business days.

• Increases annual funding requirements for cable companies from $100,000 to $200,000 per year to be directed to community antenna television advisory councils for developing town-specific education and government programming, disbursed in two equal payments (March 1 and June 1).

• Requires community antenna television advisory councils to distribute all received funds to town organizations for town-specific programming development and report annually to the Department of Public Utility Control on fund disbursements and usage.

• Establishes that cable companies and nonprofits providing community access on January 1, 2008, must maintain town-specific programming funding in the same proportion as their original programming funding as of that date.