PUBLIC NOTICE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 1919 M STREET N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20554 News media information 202/418-0500. PRA 95-021 PUBLIC INFORMATION COLLECTION REQUIREMENTS SUBMITTED TO OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET FOR EMERGENCY REVIEW; ADDITIONALLY, THE COMMISSION SEEKS COMMENTS ON THIS PROPOSED COLLECTION The Federal Communications Commission, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burden invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the following information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980, (44 U.S.C. 3507). Comments concerning the Commission's need for this information, the accuracy of the provided burden estimates, and any suggested methods for minimizing respondent burden, including the use of automated information techniques, are requested. The Commission has requested an emergency OMB review of the Form 1240 with an approval by December 8, 1995. Persons wishing to comment on this information collection should direct all comments to Timothy Fain, Office of Management and Budget, Room 10236 NEOB, Washington, DC 20503, (202) 395- 3561 or via internet at fain_t@a1.eop.gov, and Dorothy Conway, Federal Communications, Room 234, 1919 M St., N.W., Washington, DC 20554 or via internet to dconway@fcc.gov. All comments should be submited prior to December 8, 1995. OMB approves emergency submissions for only 90 days. In order to maintain the OMB approval after this time the Commission will be resubmitting the FCC 1240 as a regular submission. Therefore the Commission is requesting comments for the regular submission be submitted to Commission at the address indicated above by January 31, 1996. For additional information or copies of the information collections contact Dorothy Conway at 202-418-0217 or via internet at dconway@fcc.gov. Copies may also be obtained via fax by contacting the Commission's Fax on Demand System. To obtain fax copies call 202-418-0177 from the handset on your fax machine, and enter the document retrieval 601240, when prompted. Supplementary Information: On September 22, 1995, the Commission released a Thirteenth Order on Reconsideration ("Benchmark Cleanup Order"), FCC 95-397, MM Docket No. 92-266, Implementation of Sections of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992. In the "Benchmark Cleanup Order", the Commission adopts a new optional rate adjustment methodology where cable operators will be permitted to make annual rate changes to their Basic Service Tiers and Cable Programming Services Tiers. Operators that elect to use this new methodology will adjust their rates once per year to reflect reasonably certain and reasonably quantifiable changes in external costs, inflation, and the number of regulated channels that are projected for the 12 months following the rate change. Because operators will be permitted to estimate cost changes that will occur in the 12 months following the rate filing, we expect that this methodology will limit delays in recovering costs that operators may experience under the current system. If actual and projected costs are different during the rate year, a "true up" mechanism is available to correct estimated costs with actual cost changes. The "true up" requires operators to decrease their rates or alternatively, permits them to increase their rates to make adjustments for over- or under- estimations of these cost changes. Operators would not lose the right to make a rate increase at a later date if they choose not to implement a rate adjustment at the beginning of the next rate year. Finally, in order that operators not feel compelled to make rate filings or increase rates when they otherwise would not, we eliminated the "use or lose" requirement for operators that elect this methodology. Filing Instructions for the Form 1240 If this is your first time filing Form 1240 (assuming your franchise area is already subject to regulation), and if your most recent Form 1210 does not incorporate changes through June 30, 1995, there are two circumstances under which you must file a Form 1210 which records the changes in your system's costs which have occurred between the last Form 1210 and June 30, 1995. The first is if you moved any channels between regulated tiers in this time period. The second is if you have added channels to your regulated tier(s) during this time period and you wish to claim Caps Method or Markup Method adjustments for these channels. Any Form 1210 you file to meet these two conditions should not be treated as a separate filing, but rather as an attachment to your Form 1240. If your most recent Form 1210 does incorporate changes through June 30, 1995, you do not have to perform this first step. If this is your first time filing Form 1240 and you have never been subject to CPST regulation, in order to meet your burden of showing that your CPST rate is not unreasonable, you may have to provide details about your previous increases. If your local franchising authority becomes certified to regulate the basic service tier you are required to follow the Commission's existing rules and file a Form 1200, a Form 1205, and a Form 1210. Once those have been filed, you may switch to the annual filing system. The Commission's rules recognize seven categories of external costs: retransmission consent fees, copyright fees, programming costs, certain cable specific taxes, franchise-related costs, franchise fees and Commission regulatory fees. You may adjust your maximum permitted rate for changes in these categories of costs except for franchise fees, which are not included in your permitted rates but rather are simply added to them. Form 1240 must be filed with your local franchising authority at least 90 days before you plan to implement a change in your basic rates if your local franchising authority is certified to regulate basic rates. You must notify your local franchising authority of the annual filing date prior to filing Form 1240. If the Commission found your cable programming service rates to be unreasonable less than one year ago, or if a complaint about a CPST rate is pending before the Commission, and you now wish to increase your CPST rates, you must submit FCC Form 1240 to the Commission at least 30 days before raising your rates. OMB Approval Number: New Collection Title: Annual Updating of Maximum Permitted Rates for Regulated Cable Services Form No.: FCC Form 1240 Type of Review: New Collection Respondents: Business or other for-profit; State, Local or Tribal Governments Number of Respondents: 5,850 Estimated Time Per Response: 15 hours Total Annual Burden: 116,438 hours Needs and Uses: The Commission has created the FCC Form 1240 Annual Updating of Maximum Permitted Rates for Regulated Cable Services as a filing alternative to the FCC Form 1210, which is filed quarterly. The Form 1240, like the Form 1210, is filed by cable operators seeking to adjust maximum permitted rates for regulated services to reflect changes in external costs. Cable operators will submit the Form 1240 to their respective local franchising authorities upon certification to regulate basic service tier rates and associated equipment; or with the Commission (in situations where the Commission has assumed jurisdiction). The Form 1240 will also be filed with the Commission when responding to a complaint filed with the Commission about cable programming service rates and associated equipment. The data will be used by the Commission and local franchising authorities to adjudicate permitted rates for regulated cable services and equipment, for the addition of new programming tiers and to account for the addition and deletion of channels and the allowance for pass throughs of external costs and costs due to inflation. Fax Document Retrieval Number: 601240 -FCC -