2006 Code of Virginia § 55-248.13:2 - Access of tenant to cable, satellite and other television facilities

55-248.13:2. Access of tenant to cable, satellite and other televisionfacilities.

No landlord shall demand or accept payment of any fee, charge or other thingof value from any provider of cable television service, cable modem service,satellite master antenna television service, direct broadcast satellitetelevision service, subscription television service or service of any othertelevision programming system in exchange for granting a television serviceprovider mere access to the landlord's tenants or giving the tenants of suchlandlord mere access to such service. A landlord may enter into a serviceagreement with a television service provider to provide marketing and otherservices to the television service provider, designed to facilitate thetelevision service provider's delivery of its services. Under such a serviceagreement, the television service provider may compensate the landlord forthe reasonable value of the services provided, and for the reasonable valueof the landlord's property used by the television service provider.

No landlord shall demand or accept any such payment from any tenants inexchange therefor unless the landlord is itself the provider of the service.Nor shall any landlord discriminate in rental charges between tenants whoreceive any such service and those who do not. Nothing contained herein shallprohibit a landlord from requiring that the provider of such service and thetenant bear the entire cost of the installation, operation or removal of thefacilities incident thereto, or prohibit a landlord from demanding oraccepting reasonable indemnity or security for any damages caused by suchinstallation, operation or removal.

(1982, c. 323; 2000, c. 760; 2003, cc. 60, 64, 68.)