WHEREAS, Time Warner Cable (TWC) provides cable service to residents of the City of Austin under franchise agreement with the City; and

WHEREAS, TWC changed its programming line up as of August 2, 2001 including the removal of C-SPAN2 from its shared channel with Bravo (previously channel 52) on the standard tier and placement as a full time channel in the digital programming package (on channel 381); and

WHEREAS, the City of Austin is committed to using technology to make government information more accessible to its citizens and businesses and desires to safeguard the availability of and access to diverse programming for its citizens with special needs; and

WHEREAS, C-SPAN2 provides access to telecast Senate debates, long-form coverage of news, Book TV and other programming which is of value to Austin?s visually impaired and to the community at large; and

WHEREAS, numerous citizens who subscribe to TWC have voiced their concerns repeatedly that C-SPAN2 has been eliminated from the Standard Service Tier, effectively removing the ability of these citizens who may not be able to afford the higher cost of service to view this public access channel; and

WHEREAS, TWC?s franchise Ordinance No. 960613-A states in section 6.1 in part that, "In addition to the service requirements in this Franchise, Grantee agrees to provide programming responsive to the Austin community's needs?"; and

WHEREAS, the Telecommunications Commission recommends that TWC reconsider its removal of C-SPAN2 from the Standard Service Tier; NOW

To recommend that TWC reinstate C-SPAN2 to the non-digital, "New Standard" programming tier in order to meet the needs of the Austin community and in special consideration of the visually impaired.