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t M E M O R A N D U M TO: North Suburban Cable Communications Commission Burnsville/Eagan Cable Communications Commission North Central Suburban Cable Communications Commission Quad Cities Cable Communications Commission FROM: Thomas D. Creighton DATE: March 30, 1988 RE: Adult Programming/North Central Cable Company's Channel 34 I. INTRODUCTION You have requested a legal opinion regarding the Commis- sion and its member municipality's regulatory authority regarding Cable TV North Central's offering of adult pro- gramming on cable channel 34. Below please find an analysis of the facts, a summary of the law as it relates to this issue, any legal conclusion regarding the regulatory author- ity, and alternate courses of action for the Commission and its member cities. II. FACTS Cable TV North Central (the "Company") is the provider of cable service to subscribers in your various municipal- ities. The Company has modified its program offering to include adult programming on cable channel 34. The program- ming has been characterized as obscene, indecent, or other- wise pornographic by individuals communicating with your cities. The Company characterizes the programming as adult programming or "soft erotica". The programming is not x- rated, simply because it has not been submitted to the rating boards of the motion picture industry since the pro- gramming is not shown in public theaters. The Company offers the adult programming on a pay -per - view basis. The programming is only offered after 10:30 P.M. The adult programs are "scrambled" both in audio and video by the converter box at the subscriber terminal. Additionally, subscribers are provided with a lock -out key which will prevent that programming from being received on the converter. For those few subscribers who connect their cable directly to a cable -ready set (a process which is difficult since the cable channels are not the same as the