HomeMy WebLinkAboutNB 5 CABLE INCREASE 03-16-81DATE:
March 9, 1981
NS~ BUSINESS
No. 5
Inter-Corn
TO:
FROH:
SUBJECT:
HONORABLE MAYOR ~ CITY CO(3NCIL
DAN BLANK~SHIP, CITY ADMINISTRATOR
PROPOSAL FOR NEW SERVICE AND RATE INCREASE - CO~IUNITY CABLEVISION
Attached is the request of C~m~nity Cablevision Company serving the Laurelwood
and Peppertree areas for a rate increase to go with an increased level of
service. We have asked them to communicate with the two associations as this
will facilitate and simplify matters.
Section 7421b regarding rates, establishes the alternative procedures for such
rate increases. The procedures are as follows:
City Council decides whether or not to have a preliminary hearing by
the City ~ministrator. If so, proceed to step 2. If not, skip to
step 6.
City Clerk gives notice, City Administrator holds hearing.
City Administrator prepares his report, findings ar~ reco~nendation
to the City Council.
®
City Council decides whether to adopt the Administrator's
recommendations or to have a second public hearing by Council.
Se
If recommendation is to be confirmed, direct City Attorney to prepare
resolution and adopt it at later meeting. This terminates the
procedure and you may disregard steps 6 through 9.
If the Council did not have the preliminary hearing or did not accept
as final the reconmendation of the City Administrator, then City
Council adopts resolution of intention to consiaer rate increase with
a date for a public hearing.
City Clerk gives notice.
Council holds hearing.
Council makes decision and directs City Attorney to prepare
resolution for adoption at a later meeting.
~hus, Council may have an Administrator's hearing, a Council hearing, or both,
at its option.
ACTICN BEFORE COUNCIL
Determine if a preliminarY hearing by the City Administrator is desire~ or if,
instead, it should be set for a Council hearing; and direct staff to proceed
with implementation 'of procedure selected.
Respectfully submitted,
R~ANK~SRIP, ~ )
City Administrator ~,/
DB:dmt
March 3, 1981
Communit? CablevisJon Company
1061 Camelback St.
Newport Beach, California 92663
(714) 644-4471
Mr. Dan Blankenship
City Administrator
City Hall
200 Centennial Way
Tustin, CA 92680
Dear Mr. Blankenship:
The enclosed information outlines a new era of cable television service for
the subscribers of Community Cablevision Company. We believe this exciting
new approach will be welcomed heartily by our subscribers and will most
certainly be the base from which future services will be built.
Beginning May l, 1981, Community Cablevision Company will inaugurate a new 26
channel basic service not previously offered. This new offering must carry
its own rate structure as outlined in the enclosed information. Current
rates for 12 channel service have been in effect since the grant of franchise
in August 1973. Rates for like services were changed January 1, 1980 in
Irvine and Newport Beach. The rate change outlined for 12 channel service
would mean parity with surrounding areas for Tustin subscribers. Subscribers
currently on the 12 channel service will not be forced into the new offering
as long as they are subscribers prior to May 1, 1981.
Since Laurelwood represents our largest subscriber base in Tustin, a visit was
paid to the president of their homeowners association to explain the rate change
request and the new services. A mutual understanding was reached to allow us to
work closely on any changes.
A timely, positive action on this request is needed to insure the availability
of this important new service to the residents in our service area of Tustin.
I believe the request, as o~tlined, is complete, however, additional information
will be provided as required.
Very truly yours,
Tom LaFourcade
Presi dent
Eric
COMMUNITY CABLEVISION COMPANY
BACKGROUND
Community Cablevision Company currently serves 14,715 subscribers in Irvine,
3,105 in Newport Beach and 677 in the City of Tustin. There are approxi-
mately 5,200 subscribers to Cinemerica, a pay television service.
The Company had provided a twelve channel service to its subscribers since
March 1968. In January of 1980, the services were extended to twenty
channels in Irvine only with one channel being designated as Educational,
Governmental and Public Access to accommodate the needs of the con~nunity.
In addition, the Company has participated in the Irvine Unified School
District's two-way interactive program for several years.
CURRENT PLANS
New Services
For the past few months, Community Cablevision has studied the needs and
desires of the subscribers in its service area and has put together a
comprehensive array of new program services due for introduction to the
public May l, 1981. The new basic service will consist of twenty-six
channels and will initially include the following:
NICKELODEON: Thirteen hours per day, seven days per week of original
programming for children from pre-school to late teens.
E.S.P.N. Sports twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week.
This progra,m~ng will include sporting events from all over the
United States and is designed to satisfy the appetite of the
most avid sports fan.
U.S.A. SPORTS NETWORK: More sports, this time featuring the events
from Madison Square Garden in New York. The service is now
going beyond Madison Square Garden and will be bringing many
other exciting events.
C-SPAN: Gavel to gavel coverage of the United States House of
Representatives live from Washington D.C.
C.N.N. Cable News Network is twenty-four hours per day of news
from where the news is being made. No more waiting for top
news stories until the network news hour. You see the news
when you want.
W.T.B.S., CHANNEL 17: Independent Superstation from Atlanta,
Georgia, featuring regional sports and news.
WOR-TV, CHANNEL 9: Independent Superstation from New York City
featuring regional sports and news.
Community Cablevision is currently negotiating contracts for bringing
these new services to its subscribers. Final channel alignment has not
been set and could vary somewhat.
OPTIONAL TIERED SERVICES
Beginning May l, 1981, subscribers will have their choice of two addi-
tional new services. These are Home Box Office, the finest pay tele-
vision service in the country today and Cinemax, a twenty-four hour per
day, seven days per week movie service.
Other new optional services are being evaluated and will be added in the
future.
SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS
To provide these exciting new services, many system improvements had to
take place at a total cost surpassing two million dollars. Some of these
are as follows:
SYSTEM REBUILD. During 1980, the system rebuild was completed providing a
total capacity of thirty-five channels.
EARTH RECEIVE STATION. Currently, personnel at Community Cablevision are
completing the installation of a T.V.R.O. (Television Receive Only)
dish. This will provide the capability to receive satellite trans-
mitted program, lng.
HOME
TERMINAL UNITS. Home terminal units have been ordered and will be
available to subscribers before May 1St. These home tern)inal units
will be addressed through a central computer electronically tied to
our antenna site and will provide the flexibility necessary for the
subscriber to take advantage of programming choices without the long
wait for our installer to appear days after services have been ordered.
With this method, individual channels can be turned on and off from
the central office, therefore providing instantaneous reaction for
service requests.
SUBSCRIBER SUPPORT SERVICE. To be able to properly track all of the
activity planned, it was evident we would have to change our computer
system. The system is currently being changed and when completed,
will provide instant on-line computer service to better service our
subscribers.
SUBSCRIBER OPTIONS. All subscribers vrill have the option to stay with
their current service 9r upgrade to the new services. The increase
in basic rates represent only that amount necessary to'achieve rate
paritywith the cities of Irvine and Newport Beach which have been
paying these rates since January l, 1980. It should be pointed out
that no new twelve or twenty channel service will be connected after
April 30, 1981.
ASSOCIATION AGREEMENTS. There is one association agreement in effect in
Tustin. This agreement is for 522 dwelling units and is with t~e
Laurelwood Homeowners Association. The Association has been~ade
aware of the rate change request and the new servlces to be offered
in Tustin.
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CURRENT SERVICE
CABLE
CHANNEL
2
3
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
13
CALL LETTERS
KNXT
KGTV
KNBC
KTLA
KCET
KABC
KFMB
KHJ
KOCE
KTTV
KMEX
KWHY
KCOP
CHANNEL
2
3
10
4
5
28
7
8
9
50
11
34
22
13
POINT OF ORIGIN
Los Angeles
Irvine
San Diego
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
San Diego
Los Angeles
Huntington Beach
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
AFFILIATION
CBS
Public/Educationl
Govt. Access
ABC
NBC
Independent
Educational
ABC
CBS
Independent
Educational
Independent
Independent
(Spanish)
Independent
(Stockmarket)
Independent
OPTIONAL SERVICE
CINEMERICA - Movie Service
INSTALL
RATES
12 CHANNEL SERVICE
MONTHLY
MONTHLY
(Association)
ADDITIONAL
OUTLETS
$10 $5 $3 $1
-4-
SERVICE EFFECTIVE MAY 1st, 1981
CABLE
CHANNEL
CALL LETTERS CHANNEL POINT OF ORIGIN
2 KNXT 2 Los Angeles
$ - 3 Irvine
3 AETN Irvine
4 KNBC 4 Los Angeles
5 KTLA 5 Los Angeles
6 KCET 28 Los Angeles
7 KABC 7 Los Angeles
8 KFMB 8 San Diego
9 KHJ g Los Angeles
l0 KGTV l0 San Diego
ll KTTV ll Los Angeles
12 KWHY 22 Los Angeles
13 KCOP 13 Los Angeles
14 )
15 ) Reserved for Data (Aeronautical Band)
16 )
17 KMEX 34 Los Angeles
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
25
25
26
27
28
K-FBN 40 Los Angeles
KBSC 52 Los Angeles
HOME BOX OFFICE
IRVINE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
IRVINE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
KSCI 18 Los Angeles
KHOF 30 Corona
C-SPAN Washington D.C.
CALLIOPE
USA SPORTS New York
NETWORK
WTBS 17 Atlanta
ESPN -
NICKELODEON
29 CNN '
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
WOR 9 New York
Reserved
Non-usable
HOME BOX OFFICE - optional
Reserved
CINEMAX - optional
KOCE 50 Huntington Beach
AFFILIATION
CBS
Public/Educationa
Govt. Access
Continuing
Education
NBC
Independent
Educational
ABC
CBS
Independent
ABC
Independent
Independent
(Stockmarket)
Independent
Independent
(Spanish)
Independent
(TrinitY)
Independent
Independent
Independent
Congressional
Channel
Children's Pro-
gramming
Sports (MSG)
Independent
24 hour per day
Sports
Children's Pro-
gramming
24 hour per day.
News
Independent
Educational
-5-
Service Effective May 1st, 1981 - Continued
OPTIONAL SERVICES
HOME BOX OFFICE
CINEMAX
- Satellite Pay Service {Variety)
- 24 hour per day movie service
INSTALLATION
CHARGE
Current Proposed
$1o.oo $]o.oo
- *$34.95
RATES
NUMBER OF
CHANNELS ASSOCIATION RATE SINGLE RATE
Current Proposed Current Proposed
12 $3.00 $6.70 $5.00 $8.00
26 - - - $10.95
ADDITIONAL OUTLET
Current Proposed
$].oo $2.oo
- $5.00
*An annual equipment fee of $25 applies to each home
terminal installed.
ACTION NEEDED BY THE CITY
Approve the 26 channel rate structure to be effective May 1st, 1981.
This action would insure the availability of the new service from its
inaugural date to subscribers in Tustin.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION
Approve deregulation of subscriber rates which would allow Community
Cablevision Company to set its own rates. This action, while very
desirable, might take a longer period o~ time for the City and would
cause a delay in the residents being offered this important new
service.
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