Commerce
VIDEO SERVICE REGULATION
On June 25, 2007, Governor Strickland signed Senate Bill 117, which created a new,
state-issued video-authorization process to replace the local cable television franchise
process. The law gave the Ohio Department of Commerce jurisdiction over cable television
providers who are granted state-issued video authorization, but not over satellite
television providers.
Prior to the effective date of the law, a company that intended to provide cable
television service had to obtain a local cable franchise from each municipality
or township. Under the law signed by Governor Strickland, a company may apply for
a state-issued cable authorization, which may consist of multiple communities. The
authorization term is 10 years, but cable television providers with state-issued
video-service authorizations are required during this period to file an application
immediately to amend their authorization to reflect any changes to the information
contained in the original application.
Traditionally, there has been only minimal competitive entry by telephone companies
into Ohio’s video programming market, in part because local franchise requirements
may present barriers to entry. It is believed that issuing statewide authorizations
will expedite the deployment of a state-of-the-art infrastructure for delivering
video and broadband services to Ohioans, some of whom have not had access to high-speed
data services. Additionally, the law will bring new competitors to cable and satellite
video providers.
The law gives the Department of Commerce authority to investigate any alleged violation
of or failure to comply with certain provisions of the law. However, the Department
does not have any authority to regulate the rates, terms or conditions of a provider’s
service – including the networks or television stations that the video-services
company decides to carry.
- Approved Authorizations
- Armstrong Utilities Inc., dba Armstrong Cables Services (Authorization
and Service Areas)
-- 07/01/2008 UPDATES (First Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 09/24/2008 UPDATES (Second Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 11/21/2008 UPDATES (Third Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 08/20/2009 UPDATES (Fourth Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 11/05/2009 UPDATES (Fifth Amendment
and Service Areas)
- The Arthur Mutual Telephone Company (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- AT&T Ohio (Authorization
and Service Areas)
-- 12/16/2009 UPDATES (Service
Areas)
- The Ayersville Telephone Company (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Bellaire Television Cable Company, Inc. (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Block Communications Inc. (Authorization
and Service Areas)
-- 03/20/2008 UPDATES (First
Amendment and Service
Areas)
-- 04/15/2008 UPDATES (Second
Amendment and Service
Areas)
- BTC Multimedia, LLC dba Bascom Communications, Inc. (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Buckland Telephone Company (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Cequel III Communications II, LLC dba Suddenlink Communications (Authorization and
Service Areas)
- The Chillicothe Telephone Company, dba Horizon View (Authorization
and Service Areas)
-- 05/27/2008 UPDATES(First Amendment
and Service Areas)
- Cincinnati Bell Extended Territories (Authorization
and Service Areas)
-- 04/10/2008 UPDATES (First Amendment)
-- 12/16/2009 UPDATES (Service
Areas)
- Comcast Fort Wayne, Limited Partnership dba Comcast (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Comcast of Illinois/Indiana/Ohio, LLC. (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Comcast of Illinois/Ohio/Oregon, LLC. (Authorization
and Service Areas)
-- 04/24/2008 UPDATES (First Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 09/05/2008 UPDATES (Second Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 01/28/2009 UPDATES (Third Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 11/06/2009 UPDATES (Fourth Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 01/27/2010 UPDATES (Fifth Amendment
and Service Areas) 
- Comcast of Ohio (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Conneaut Telephone Company, Inc. (Authorization
and Service Areas)
-- 05/14/2008 UPDATES (First Amendment
and Service Areas)
- CoxCom, Inc., dba Cox Communications (Authorization
and Service Areas)
-- 10/08/2008 UPDATES (First Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 09/04/2009 UPDATES (Second Amendment
and Service Areas)
- CT Communications Network, Inc. (Authorization
and Service Areas)
-- 12/16/2009 UPDATES (Service
Areas)
- East Cleveland Cable TV and Communications, LLC. (Authorization
and Service
Areas)
- Fort Jennings Telephone Company, dba FJ Communications, Inc. (Authorization and
Service Areas)
- Friendship Cable of Texas, Inc., dba Suddenlink Communications (Authorization and
Service Areas)
- The Glandorf Telephone Company (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Insight Communications of Central Ohio, LLC, dba Insight (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Interlink Communications Partners, LLC dba Charter Communications (Authorization and
Service Areas)
- Kalida Telephone Company, Inc. (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Massillon Cable TV, Inc. (Authorization
and Service Areas)
-- 08/19/2008 UPDATES (First Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 11/05/2009 UPDATES (Second Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 12/24/2009 UPDATES (Third Amendment
and Service Areas)
- The McClure Telephone Company (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- The Middle Point Home Telephone Company (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Nelsonville TV Cable, Inc. (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- NKTelco, Inc. (Authorization
and Service Areas)/li>
- Orwell Communications (Authorization
and Service Areas)
-- 04/25/2008 UPDATES (First Amendment
and Service Areas)
- Powhatan Point (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- P Riley Enterprises, Inc. dba STS Cable (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Quality One Technologies, Inc. (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Rapid Communications, LLC, dba Rapid Communication and Rapid Cable
(NOTE: Authorization was transferred to Zito Media on 2/27/09)
(Authorization and
Service Areas)
-- 07/29/2008 UPDATES (First Amendment
and Service Areas)
- Richards TV Cable Company Inc., dba New Athens TV Cable Company; Morristown
TV Cable Company; and Richards TV Cable Company (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Sherwood Mutual Telephone Association, Inc., dba Shertel Cable, Inc.
and SMTA (Authorization and
Service Areas)
- Telephone Service Company, dba TSC Communications, Inc. (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Time Warner Cable, LLC. (Authorization
and Service Areas)
-- 08/06/2008 UPDATES (First Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 10/10/2008 UPDATES (Second Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 11/07/2008 UPDATES (Third Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 02/18/2009 UPDATES (Fourth Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 07/10/2009 UPDATES (Fifth Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 10/30/2009 UPDATES (Sixth Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 01/12/2010 UPDATES (Seventh Amendment
and Service Areas)

-- 12/31/2009 UPDATES (Eighth Amendment
and Service Areas)

- The Wabash Mutual Telephone Company (Authorization
and Service Areas)
-- 05/02/2008 UPDATES (First Amendment
and Service Areas)
- Vital Communications Group, LLC (Authorization
and Service Areas)

- WideOpenWest Cleveland, LLC (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- WideOpenWest Ohio, LLC (Authorization
and Service Areas)
- Windjammer Communications (Acknowledgement
of Transfer, Authorization, and
Service Areas)
-- 11/25/2009 UPDATES (First Amendment
and Service Areas - Including Transfer
Areas)
-- 01/12/2010 UPDATES (Second Amendment
and Service Areas)
-- 01/27/2010 UPDATES (Third Amendment
and Service Areas)

- Zito NCTNNWVPANOH, LLC, doing business as Zito Media, Inc (Authorization
and Service Areas)