Programming & Channel Use

As stated in the CTV Producer Handbook . . .

Program Rights. CTV owns the copyright to all material produced with CTV equipment. CTV has a license, pursuant to the Producer Agreement Form signed by each producer, to broadcast all SUBMITTED material not produced with CTV equipment. Programs produced with CTV equipment must be primarily for broadcast on the access channel. Any outside use of CTV programs other than personal home viewing or educational uses must first be approved by the General Manager. This can be accomplished by submitting a written request to the General Manager. If approved, the General Manager will issue a written approval for such use. CTV equipment shall not be used in any way for personal profit or remuneration. If this policy is violated, the producer may have privileges suspended or revoked. In signing the Program Agreement, the Executive Producer agrees to indemnify and save harmless CTV, the City of Knoxville, the video service provider, and any members of their staffs, Boards of Directors, officers, stockholders, etc., from any and all claims, demands, damages or other liabilities which may be made against or arise out of the broadcast in any medium (tv, internet or otherwise) of the program submitted by them, whether or not the program has been reviewed by CTV prior to broadcast, and to pay CTV, the City of Knoxville, and/or the video service provider, all legal fees and expenses incurred by it in connection with any legal proceedings concerning broadcast of this program, as such legal fees and expenses arise. Programming on Community Television is provided for all viewers in the City of Knoxville and Knox County.

Program Content. CTV encourages community producers to exercise the responsible expression of their 1st Amendment rights. Executive Producers are held solely responsible and legally accountable for the content of their programs and as such may be subject to prosecution for the broadcast of illegal material. Executive Producers are required to complete a CTV Program Agreement in which the Executive Producer accepts responsibility for the content of the program and provides CTV with a contact telephone number through which the Executive Producer can be reached for comments. This number will be made available to all who request it. Executive Producers must be at least 18 years of age. The following are absolutely prohibited for any and all programs or messages cablecast on the access channel administered by CTV:

• Lotteries or contests that involve directly or indirectly the elements of a prize, chance, and/or consideration. Reference section 76.213 of the rules of the Federal Communications Commission.
• Material which would subject the producer or supplier to civil or criminal prosecution under any applicable local, state, or federal law for production or presentation of obscene or erotic material, slander or libel, invasion of privacy.
• Material soliciting or promoting unlawful conduct.
• Material that is copyrighted or subject to ownership or royalty rights, union residuals, or other payment (e.g. music, written works, photographs, film, video) unless the producer has obtained all necessary permission, releases, licenses and made all necessary payments to authorize broadcast of any such material. CTV requires Executive Producers to provide original evidence of such payment or permission.
• Advertising or commercial promotion of any business, product, service, private school or commercial event.
• Direct solicitation of funds.
• More than 10% of outside programming content (see section 1.4 for the definition of outside programming).
• Promotions and endorsements on behalf of political candidates.
• Promotion (or mention) of any website owned or managed by a for-profit entity (company, organization, or individual). Usually, (not always), this includes website addresses ending in “com”.

  Should a court order be issued against a program or series for any reason, the broadcast of that program or series will be suspended pending the legal decision.

CTV Copyright Privileges. We are a non-profit corporation and we have same rights under the copyright laws as any other company. We own the copyright to any program produced by our employees. As the copyright owner we have the right to exercise all rights of copyright, which includes the right to exclude others from making and publishing copies of our programs and the right to exclude others from making derivative works using our programs. When someone edits or changes our program, they are making a "derivative work."

As a matter of policy or choice, we allow others to publish copies of our programs under certain conditions. If you provide a copy of your personal identification (eg. driver's license or passport) and request permission, in writing, to make and publish unedited and completely unchanged copies of our programs, we would likely grant permission to do that. There may be some unusual situation in which we would refuse permission. However, as a general rule, we do not grant permissions to publish edited or changed versions of our programs (derivative works).

Guidelines Regarding Potentially Offensive Programming.
These guidelines are not intended to discourage free expression, but rather to achieve a balance between the First Amendment right to free speech and the cable subscriber’s right to be protected from unwanted viewing of offensive material. CTV is a public forum which provides first-come, first-served public access and whose program schedule is managed by reasonable time, place, and manner constraints. CTV policy is not to broadcast programs which are obscene under federal or Tennessee law. CTV will broadcast programs which are identified as "Potentially offensive" under the following guidelines. CTV's Board expects that these guidelines will change in the future based upon actual experiences with specific programs.

Content. A program, which contains any of the following, will be considered to be "potentially offensive to some audiences." It will be broadcast with a viewer warning and in a late night time slot.

• Language: slang, vulgar or colloquial expression which refers, in the context in which it is used, to sexual intercourse, masturbation, anal or oral sexual contact, to human genitals, or to human elimination; or abusive language against men or women, ethnic groups, religious groups, sexual orientation, or persons with disabilities.
• Sexual Activities: images or depictions of the Specified Sexual Activities defined in Article XII, Section 16-468 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Knoxville.
• Anatomical Areas: Depictions of the portions of the human body defined as Specified Anatomical Areas in Article XII, Section 16-468 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Knoxville, and that appeal to the prurient interest.
• Violence: Extreme acts of violence against actual people; or depictions of extreme violent acts in dramatic and/or poetic manners.
• Graphic Images: images or depictions of human or animal elimination and/or mutilation; images or depictions of graphic medical surgical procedures; or images or depictions abusive against men or women, ethnic groups, religious groups, sexual orientation, or persons with disabilities.

Each Executive Producer is responsible for certifying to CTV on the Program Content Form whether their programming contains any "potentially offensive" material according to the above guidelines. Should any Executive Producer fail to properly disclose the "potentially offensive" nature of the program on the Program Content Form, CTV has the right to suspend or terminate the producer’s privileges. Any suspension or termination of privileges will include both the Executive Producer and all other persons associated with the production of the program. In addition to the foregoing factors, the staff of CTV also has the authority to determine classification as potentially offensive based on items, which may not be listed above.

Viewer Advisory Message. If a live program is intended for a general audience, and measures are taken to prevent indecent language to no avail, scheduling of replays as adult programs can be avoided by editing out vulgarities. If indecent language cannot be deleted, then the producer must add a Viewer Advisory Message to the program and any subsequent replays will occur in "Late Night" time slots. The Viewer Advisory Message (audio and video) shall be broadcast and/or edited on the video for 30 seconds to 60 seconds prior to the start time of the program. Viewer warnings may also be required in the body of long (60 minutes or greater) programs. CTV retains the right to place Viewer Advisory Messages before any program.

"Late Night" Time Slots. Programming containing potentially offensive programming will be broadcast during “Late Night” Time Slots between midnight and 4 a.m., Saturday or Sunday.

Program Liability. Executive Producers must sign a Program Agreement acknowledging legal responsibility for program content. If a producer (serving in any role) is under 18, a parent or legal guardian must sign the Program Agreement and each equipment reservation form. The content of programs presented on the access channel is solely the responsibility of the Executive Producer. As such:

• No liability for the content of access programs for which CTV does not have direct production control shall attach itself to the City of Knoxville, Knox County, CTV their agents or employees, or any video service provider.
• Executive Producers must provide CTV with a contact telephone number through which they may be contacted by members of the community with comments regarding the program. CTV will make this contact number available to community residents who request it.

Program Scheduling. CTV accepts only locally produced programming for airing on the access channel. Local programming is defined as programming that contains no more than 10% of material produced by non-residents of Knox County. Regular Series programs are assigned a regular airtime slot by means of an annual drawing. The General Manager places new series programs on the air schedule where time allows until the next drawing.

Any submitted program that contains more than 10% of material that has previously aired on CTV (including openings & closings) must be labeled as REPEAT programming. Executive Producers of regular series may submit repeat programming for air during their regular time slot only once, but airing of such programming is always at the discretion of CTV. In order to maintain a regular time slot, there may be no more than 50 percent of repeated programming during any three-month period. The “repackaging” of previously aired program material (changing the program title, rearranging scene sequences, using clips from old programs, etc.) does NOT constitute "original" programming. Programs containing more than 10% of such material shall NOT count as original programming for the purpose of airing, reporting, or the retention of a regular series time slot. Furthermore, submission of previously aired material not properly identified as "Repeat" programming will result in the suspension of access privileges. The number of repeat showings any program receives after its first broadcast is determined by CTV staff based on the available channel time and may change as demand for channel time increases. CTV reserves the right to preempt program repeats. Government programming preempts all other programming. Programs must be submitted by the Thursday before the week they are intended to air. Programs not delivered in accordance with this schedule may be delayed for playback. CTV reserves the right to change delivery requirements.

Advertising or Commercial Promotion. Programming submitted by community producers shall not contain any advertising or promotion of any business, product, service, private school or commercial event. This includes, but is not limited to, business, product, service, private school or commercial event descriptions, publicity or endorsements. Except as expressly permitted below, business, product, service, private school or commercial event names, logos, dates, or locations in any form whatsoever shall not appear or be presented in any context that involves the producer’s promotion, endorsement, approval or recognition of the business, goods, services, private school or commercial events. Commercial phone numbers shall not appear or be presented at any time. CTV producers shall not receive financial compensation for the production of any programming. The only credit for underwriting support (goods or services) must appear at the conclusion of the program. The credit shall be placed at the close of the program and may use a full or partial screen with plain background or over the program video without a voice-over for a maximum of 10 seconds. Underwriters shall not be thanked or recognized in the body of the program. The underwriting/support credit shall read as follows: “Support for this program has been provided in part by . . . business name(s).”

Identification of Guests. Producers and guests who appear on CTV programs may be verbally identified once at the beginning of the program, and once at the end by name only. Character generation throughout the program may contain only the name of the individual, or individuals, not their affiliation. Under no circumstances should reference be made to any commercial entity that employs, or is owned in any way by, the producer or guest. Violation of these policies may result in suspension or revocation of access privileges.

Political Programming. Promotions and endorsements on behalf of political candidates are prohibited. Community producers who invite current office holders or defined candidates to appear on their show must notify CTV within forty eight (48) hours prior to the first telecast and complete and submit a Candidate Appearance form. The community producer must also notify competing candidates within forty eight (48) hours prior to telecast, telling them about the appearance and explaining what Community Television is and how they too can participate. Each political program produced by CTV and for which CTV has direct editorial control will be non-partisan and will provide an equal opportunity for all candidates or parties concerned to participate. If a candidate or issue representative declines to participate, CTV will not be obligated to provide other opportunities. Before each primary and general election, Community Television produces and airs a program entitled "Equal Time." In this program, each candidate on the Knox County election commission ballot is given the opportunity to speak for five minutes directly to the television viewer, addressing topics of his/her choosing.

Live Programming. Live programming is permitted in the producer’s regularly scheduled time slot either in the CTV live studio, or from an off-site location with cable connections. Currently, off-site live capability is only available in the Assembly Rooms of the City/County Building. An application should be filed with the General Manager at least 30 days in advance of the program date.

• Each producer is allowed additional live programming time outside of their regularly scheduled time slot on a one time per year basis under the following conditions:
• An application must be filed with the General Manager at least 30 days in advance of the proposed program date.
• The off-site location must be available on the proposed day and time. It is up to the Executive Producer to secure the off-site location.
• The proposed time slot must be available.
• Additional live programming time during normal broadcast hours may be made available to producers if all the conditions mentioned in #2 (above) are met. In addition, the Executive Producer must have in writing the approval of any group whose time slot would be preempted by their special program. It is up to the Executive Producer to negotiate this approval. This approval will be submitted with the completed application form.
• There is a one-dollar ($1.00) per minute charge for all live programming (see #s 1-2-3 above) to cover any expenses incurred. This fee is to be paid to CTV prior to air, unless other regular payment arrangements are approved by the General Manager.

Note: Those events which CTV is required to cover live or prerecorded by law, agreement or contract (e.g., government meetings) may never be preempted by producer programming.

Community Events Calendar. CTV is pleased to assist nonprofit organizations by including their announcements about upcoming events in our Community Events Calendar. The calendar airs approximately 6 – 8 hours each day, between regularly scheduled programs, and at other times throughout the day and night. There are only two requirements: proof of the organization’s nonprofit designation and payment of the small annual community calendar access fee. The preferred document for proof of non-profit status is a copy of the federal 501(c)(3) letter issued by the IRS. Payment of the annual community calendar access fee entitles the organization to additional announcements during the 12-month period (up to 3 per month) at no additional cost. Each announcement is formatted as follows: HEADLINE, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, CONTACT.

Educational Access. The mission of the Education Channel of Community Television of Knoxville is to deliver programming and support services for public educational institutions in the City of Knoxville, and Knox County, Tennessee. Programming will run on the channel dedicated to educational access programming if it falls under one or more of the following categories:

• produced and/or supplied by a public educational institution or organization (a school, board of education, teacher’s union, etc.);
• produced by students or members of a public educational institution or organization on behalf of that institution or organization;
• contains subject matter related to structured education (such as that received in public schools), sanctioned by a qualified learning institution;
• on-air participants are representing a public educational institution or organization.

Programming will be produced by the various public educational institutions in the City of Knoxville and Knox County districts, CTV, or may be imported.