Cable Operators

NEW YORK - Comcast Corp. and other cable operators won support yesterday from Republican and Democratic lawmakers who criticized an idea to let consumers buy channels individually rather than in packages. "We have a marketplace that is working," Rep. Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who heads the House telecommunications subcommittee, said at a hearing. "The government must resist the urge to re-regulate and tinker with this marketplace." No bill has been introduced to require so-called a la carte service, which would dismantle the current system in which cable operators select the channels viewers get in packages.

The president of United Artists Cable apologized yesterday to subscribers who'd tuned in Channel 13 Monday night hoping to see ABC's coverage of big men in football gear but instead saw local access cable coverage of large women in bathing suits."

CHICAGO - Two of the nation's leading phone company executives offered a glimpse of the industry's future at an industry trade show in Chicago yesterday. David W. Dorman, chairman of AT&T Corp., which is to be acquired by SBC Communications Inc., said at the SuperComm trade show held at McCormick Place that the merger - along with the proposed acquisition of MCI Inc. by Verizon Communications Inc. - would spur a vigorous rivalry between the nation's two largest local phone carriers. SBC and Verizon compete for wireless customers but have never been rivals for landline residential customers, Dorman noted.

Cable companies and Baltimore-area network television stations have stepped up talks about what local cable subscribers will see when they turn on their TV sets in two weeks. Proposals include everything from new cable channels for the owners of local stations to sharing some business costs.Baltimore's situation is among the worst in the country for programming agreements between the four major network stations -- ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox -- and cable companies, according to the National Association of Broadcasters.

Consumer advocates are calling a move by federal regulators to reduce cable TV rates by 7 percent "a moderate victory," but cable system operators are cautioning that some subscribers still might not see their rates decline.The Federal Communications Commission yesterday ordered the cuts following complaints that its first attempt at rate-cutting 10 months ago had only partly succeeded. The commission mandated reductions of 10 percent in April, but loopholes in the regulations allowed cable operators to increase rates for nearly 30 percent of the nation's 57 million cable subscribers.

WASHINGTON -- The days and nights of free Oprah and Cosby Show could be numbered for cable television viewers if Congress passesa measure allowing broadcasters to charge cable operators for their programming.The cable industry warns that the provision, part of a bill expected to be brought to the Senate floor this month, could raise subscribers' rates by as much as $5 per month.Any proposal to allow cable systems to be charged for receiving network or local broadcast programming "would hit the consumer right in the wallet and give him nothing in return," James P. Mooney, president of the National Cable Television Association, told a House subcommittee last month.

At first glance it appears cable television firms got the best of the broadcast industry in round two of the Great Cable Reformation. But in the cable business, things are not as simple as they seem.It will take months to sort out what happened to subscribers' fees under the new law aimed at rolling them back. It may take a flock of MBAs months to figure out who got what in this week's showdown between broadcasters and cable operators.Cable operators no longer have the right to pluck broadcast signals from the air and retransmit them to customers.

The Federal Communications Commission granted the much-bruised cable television industry a measure of relief yesterday as it voted to let companies collect up to $1.50 more a month over the next two years in return for adding six new channels.The decision is good news for consumers who are eager to have a greater choice of channels within their "expanded basic" service, the most popular package of broadcast and nonpremium cable channels.For consumers who have all the channels they want and aren't interested in new ones, it will mean higher bills for unwanted services.

LOS ANGELES -- How interested are television viewers in information about the Persian Gulf crisis?A good indication came over the weekend when C-SPAN II, the cable channel that covers the Senate, reported adding 9.3 million new subscribers on Thursday, the first day of congressional debate on the use of military force in the Gulf. C-SPAN II was added to 240 cable systems across the country for this debate coverage."The response by our cable affiliates to bring the live Senate debate to their subscribers has been incredible," said Lisa Kerr, a C-SPAN spokeswoman.

SOMETIME SOON, Baltimore County residents may get their first glimpse of what deregulation in the cable television industry really means. Two companies -- Starpower and American Broadband -- want to offer service and compete with Comcast, but the competition may not solve the ills affecting current cable service. Ask the county's 210,000 cable consumers about cable service, and they'll likely grumble about escalating bills. What really bothers them, however, are the inexplicable service interruptions, the difficulty reaching service representatives and cable repairs that are not made when promised.