Sec. 5A-102. Definitions and word usage
Codified through Bill No. CB-018-2026, adopted May 12, 2026, effective July 24, 2026. Source: Municode, Supplement 2026 Update 2. Editorial notes and legislative history omitted.
Prince George's County, Md., Code § 5A-102 (2026)
Sec. 5A-102. Definitions and word usageLinkCopy Citation
(a)
For the purposes of this Subtitle, the following terms, phrases, words, and abbreviations shall have the meanings given herein, unless otherwise expressly stated. When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present tense include the future tense; words in the plural number include the singular number, and words in the singular number include the plural number; and the masculine gender includes the feminine gender. The words "shall" and "will" are mandatory, and "may" is permissive. Unless otherwise expressly stated, words not defined herein shall be given the meaning set forth in Title 47 of the United States Code, as amended, and, if not defined therein, their common and ordinary meaning.
(1)
Access Channel shall mean any channel on a cable system set aside by a franchisee for public, educational, or governmental ("PEG") use.
(2)
Affiliate shall mean any person who owns or controls, is owned or controlled by, or is under common ownership or control with a franchisee.
(3)
Basic Service shall mean any service tier that includes the retransmission of local television broadcast signals and/or PEG access signals.
(4)
Cable Act shall mean the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, 47 U.S.C. Section 521 et seq., as amended from time to time.
(5)
Cable Service shall mean:
(A)
The one-way transmission to subscribers of video programming or other programming services; and
(B)
Subscriber interaction, if any, which is required for the selection or use of such video programming or other programming service.
(6)
Cable System or System shall mean a facility consisting of a set of closed transmission paths and associated signal generation, reception, and control equipment that is designed to provide cable television service which includes video programming and which is provided to multiple subscribers within the County, but such term does not include:
(A)
A facility that serves only to retransmit the television signals of one or more television broadcast stations;
(B)
A facility that serves subscribers without using any public rights-of-way;
(C)
A facility of a common carrier which is subject, in whole or in part, to the provisions of Title II of the Communications Act, except that such facility shall be considered a cable system if such facility is used in the transmission of video programming directly to subscribers;
(D)
An open video system that complies with 47 U.S.C. Section 573; or
(E)
Any facilities of any electric utility used solely for operating its electric utility system.
A reference to a cable system refers to any part thereof, including, without limitation, converters. This definition shall not be deemed to circumscribe or limit the valid authority of Prince George's County to regulate or franchise the activities of any other communications system or provider of communications services to the full extent permitted by law. Any franchise agreement shall define the services of any franchisee who is authorized to use the public rights-of-way to provide such services.
(7)
Channel shall mean a six Megahertz (MHz) frequency band, or equivalent capacity, which is capable of carrying either one standard video signal, a number of audio, digital, or other nonvideo signals, or some combination of such signals.
(8)
Commission or CATV Commission shall mean the Prince George's County Cable Television Commission established herein, or its designee.
(9)
Converter shall mean an electronic device which may serve as an interface between a system and a subscriber's television receiver or other terminal equipment, and which may perform a variety of functions, including signal security, descrambling, electronic polling, frequency conversion and channel selection.
(10)
Council shall mean the County Council of Prince George's County, Maryland.
(11)
County shall mean Prince George's County, Maryland, and any agency, department, or agent thereof.
(12)
County Executive mean the County Executive of Prince George's County, Maryland, or the County Executive's designee.
(13)
Customer shall mean the same as "Subscriber," defined herein.
(14)
Director shall mean the Director, or the Director's designee, of the Office of Information Technology.
(15)
Educational Access Channel or Educational Channel shall mean any channel on a cable system set aside by a franchisee for educational use.
(16)
Fair Market Value shall mean the price that a willing buyer would pay to a willing seller.
(17)
FCC shall mean the Federal Communications Commission, its designee, or any successor governmental entity thereto.
(18)
Force Majeure shall mean that the franchisee shall not be liable for delay in performance of, or failure to perform, in whole or in part, its obligations pursuant to the agreement due, directly or indirectly, to severe or unusual weather conditions, strike, labor disturbance, lockout, war or act of war (whether an actual declaration of war is made or not), insurrection, riot, act of public enemy, action or inaction of any government instrumentality or public utility including condemnation, accidents for which franchisee is not primarily responsible, fire, flood or other act of God, sabotage or other events to the extent that such causes or other events are beyond the reasonable control of the franchisee. In the event that any such delay in performance or failure to perform affects only part of the franchisee's capacity to perform, the franchisee shall perform to the maximum extent it is able to perform and shall take all reasonable steps within its power to correct such cause(s) in as expeditious a manner as possible.
(19)
Franchise shall mean a nonexclusive authorization granted pursuant to this Subtitle to construct, operate, and maintain a cable system along the public rights-of-way to provide cable service within all, or a specified area of, Prince George's County, Maryland. Any such authorization, in whatever form granted, shall not mean or include any general license or permit required for the privilege of transacting and carrying on a business within the County as required by the ordinances and laws of the County, or for attaching devices to poles or other structures, whether owned by the County or a private entity, or for excavating or performing other work in or along public rights-of-way.
(20)
Franchise Agreement shall mean a contract entered into pursuant to this Subtitle between the County and a franchisee that sets forth, subject to this Subtitle, the terms and conditions under which a franchise will be granted and exercised.
(21)
Franchise Area shall mean the area of the County that a franchisee is authorized to serve as provided for in its franchise agreement.
(22)
Franchisee shall mean a natural person, partnership, domestic or foreign corporation, association, joint venture, or organization of any kind that has been granted a franchise by a natural person, partnership, domestic or foreign corporation, association, joint venture, or organization of any kind that has been granted a franchise by the County.
(23)
Governmental Access Channel or Governmental Channel shall mean any channel on a cable system set aside by a franchisee for government use.
(24)
Gross Revenues shall mean any and all cash, credits, property, or other consideration of any kind or nature that constitute revenue in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and that arise from, or are attributable to, or in any way derived directly or indirectly by, a franchisee or its affiliates, or by any other entity that is a cable operator of the franchisee's system to provide cable services except as hereinafter specifically excluded.
(A)
Consistent with the foregoing, the following, without limitation, shall be included in gross revenues to the extent derived from the operation of a franchisee's cable system to provide cable services in the County:
(i)
Monthly fees collected from subscribers from any basic, optional, premium, per-channel, per-program services, or cable programming service;
(ii)
Installation, disconnection, reconnection, and change-in-service fees;
(iii)
Fees, payments, or other consideration received from programmers for carriage of programming on franchisee's cable system;
(iv)
Revenues from rentals or sales of converters or other equipment;
(v)
Studio rental;
(vi)
Fees from third party unaffiliated programmers for leased access programming;
(vii)
Production equipment, rental fee and personal fees, advertising revenues, net of normal agency commissions;
(viii)
Revenues from the sale or carriage of other cable services;
(ix)
Revenues from leased channel fees;
(x)
Late fees and administrative fees;
(xi)
Fees, payments, or other consideration received from programmers for carriage of programming on the system;
(xii)
Revenues from Internet access services; and
(xiii)
Revenues from home shopping and bank-at-home channels.
(B)
Gross revenues shall not include any taxes on services furnished by a franchisee which are imposed directly on any subscriber or user by the community or another governmental unit and which are collected by the franchisee on behalf of said governmental unit. A franchise fee is not such a tax.
(C)
Gross revenues shall not include:
(i)
Any consideration paid by the County to a franchisee for an institutional network ("I-NET"), or any expense reimbursement paid by the County or its agents, or by PEG users, to the franchisee;
(ii)
Any compensation awarded to a franchisee based on the County's condemnation of property of the franchisee;
(iii)
Any uncollected receipts (i.e., "bad debt"), provided, however, that all or any part of any such actual bad debt that is written off but subsequently collected shall be included in gross revenues in the period collected.
(D)
Any amounts includable as gross revenues that are received by an affiliate or any other entity that is a cable operator of franchisee's cable system shall not be counted as gross revenues to the extent that such amounts are also received directly by the franchisee, to ensure that no such revenue is counted twice.
(25)
Installation shall mean the connection of system services to subscribers' television receivers or other subscriber-owned or provided terminal equipment.
(26)
Leased Access Channel or Commercial Access Channel shall mean any channel on a cable system designated or dedicated for use by a person unaffiliated with the franchisee.
(27)
Net Profit shall mean the amount remaining after deducting from gross revenues all of the actual, direct and indirect, expenses associated with operating the cable system, including the franchise fee, interest, depreciation, and Federal or State income taxes.
(28)
Normal Business Hours shall mean those hours during which most similar businesses in the community are open to serve customers, including some evening hours at least one night per week and/or some weekend hours.
(29)
Normal Operating Conditions shall mean those service conditions that are within the control of a franchisee. Conditions that are not within the control of a franchisee include, but are not limited to, natural disasters, civil disturbances, power outages, telephone network outages, and severe weather conditions. Conditions that are ordinarily within the control of a franchisee include, but are not limited to, special promotions, pay-per-view events, rate increases, regular peak or seasonal demand periods, and maintenance or upgrade of a cable system.
(30)
OVS shall mean an open video system that complies with 47 U.S.C. Section 653, as amended.
(31)
PEG shall mean Public, Educational, and Governmental.
(32)
Person shall mean an individual, partnership, association, joint stock company, organization, corporation, or any lawful successor thereto or transferee thereof, but such term does not include the County.
(33)
Programmer shall mean any person or entity that produces or otherwise provides program material or information for transmission by video, audio, digital, or other signals, either live or from recorded traces or other storage media, to users or subscribers by means of a cable system.
(34)
Public Access Channel shall mean any channel on a cable system set aside by a franchisee for use by the general public, including groups and individuals, and which is available for such use on a nondiscriminatory basis.
(35)
Public Benefit Corporation shall mean any nonprofit, tax-exempt organization which has as its primary purpose the provision of services of education, health, civic, charitable, or similar nature on a County-wide basis.
(36)
Public Rights-of-Way shall mean the surface, the air space above the surface, and the area below the surface of any public street, highway, lane, path, alley, sidewalk, boulevard, drive, bridge, tunnel, park, parkway, waterway, easement, or similar property within the County, which, consistent with the purposes for which it was dedicated, may be used for the purpose of installing and maintaining a cable system. No reference herein, or in any franchise agreement, to a "public Right-of-Way" shall be deemed to be a representation or guarantee by the County that its interest or other right to control the use of such property is sufficient to permit its use for such purposes, and a franchisee shall be deemed to gain only those rights to use as are properly in the County and as the County may have the undisputed right and power to give.
(37)
Security Fund shall mean a performance bond, letter of credit, or cash deposit, or any or all of these, to the extent required by a franchise agreement.
(38)
Service Interruption shall mean loss of picture or sound on one or more cable channels, as described in FCC regulations as of December 1, 1998.
(39)
Subscriber shall mean any person who legally receives any service delivered over a cable system.
(40)
User shall mean a person or organization using a channel or equipment and facilities for purposes of producing or transmitting material, as contrasted with the receipt thereof in the capacity of a subscriber.