Ohio House OKs Franchise-Reform Bill

OHIO HOUSE OKs FRANCHISE-REFORM BILL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Haugsted]
The Ohio House overwhelming approved a franchise-reform bill Thursday that will transfer video oversight to the state Director of Commerce. Under the terms of the bill, the state official will have 45 days to approve competitive video-service agreements. Unlike other states, this bill contains some customer-service regulatory specifics. For instance, the law would mandate that consumers be compensated for provider-caused outages of four hours or more with a credit for a full day's service. Rebates will be mandatory for outages of more than 24 hours that are caused by external forces. The House added more service regulations to its version and revised the number of public, educational and government channels required by operators going forward. The latter amendments are also causing concern among incumbent operators.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6452424.html?rssid=196