Letter to the Cable Franchise Board on Their Ability to Legally Use a Government or Education Access TV Channel for Public or "Community" Access Television even though the current franchise agreements don't call for any.

July 16, 1999 Miller & Van Eaton , is on retainer with Indianapolis. Philadelphia Community Access Coalition , which is located in the same city as Comcast's headquarters. This group is fighting for the establishment of public access TV as called for in City code and agreed to in their franchise agreements. Interestingly, they told me that the community is allowed to use their educational access channel and facilities while they fight for the funding and dedicated channels that have been required for many years. Obviously, this is a just a Band-Aid for Philadelphia's problem, but it demonstrates that our strategy is viable.

Cable Franchise Board of Marion County

Suite G-19 City-County Building

200 E. Washington Street

Indianapolis, IN 46204

Dear Chairman and Board:

At last month's meeting I presented an argument for allowing the community to use the new access channel (despite the contention by some that public access TV is not required in the current cable franchise agreements) based on the Court opinion in Time Warner v. Bloomberg and The City of New York. I have asked each of you to read this entire opinion and seek the advice of Joe Van Eaton, a highly respected telecommunications attorney with expertise in access TV, whose law firm,

I presented our argument to a panel of three lawyers at The Alliance for Community Media's National Conference in Cincinnati earlier this month. All three believed this to be a viable strategy -- with no cause for legal action from the cable operators. This opinion was even held by legal counsel for a cable operator. I also ran into Mr. Van Eaton, and gave him a copy of the strategy.

After the panel discussion, I was approached by a member of the

I hope that the Board now has the comfort to move forward in bringing real community TV back to Indianapolis. I am also looking forward to the day -- which the papers are reporting may be sooner rather than later -- when we can put an unarguable public access requirement back into the franchise agreements.

Respectfully Yours,

Andrea Price

President

cc: Mayor Stephen Goldsmith

Rick Maultra, Cable Communications Agency

Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council