CABLE PUTS ITS BETS ON THE SALE TABLE

Would you buy a marked-down portable drill from an actor pitching it on TV at 6 in the morning?

OK, then, how about a portable cassette player? Or a set of wine glasses? Or . . .

“We sell everything except cars--at least not yet,” said TelShop’s Nicole Ericson, speaking from a plush mini-theater on the exhibition floor of the Western Cable Show at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Ericson is one of the seven hosts of Financial News Network’s TelShop service, which appears on the cable program service about 25 hours a week with a non-stop parade of bargains that viewers can order by phone, on the spot.

TelShop and similar ventures like Crazy Eddie’s, Cable Value Network, Shop Television Network and QVC have all sprung up since last year’s cable industry trade show, presented by the California Cable Television Assn. Along with industry leader Home Shopping Network, they are the modern-day equivalent of carnival barkers--and certainly among the liveliest new exhibits.

What they’re really pitching this week to the crowd of 7,800 is a way to transmit cable service out of Dullsville and into some new homes.

“We’re all waiting for it to evolve,” said John Malone, president of the nation’s largest cable operator, Tele-Communications Inc.

Everyone in the maturing cable business is waiting for something . Now that most of the country is wired, the boom growth years are over. Subscribership to pay-cable services such as Showtime and Home Box Office is virtually stagnant.

The ratings on basic cable--the services such as USA Cable, WTBS and MTV that come with the hookup at no extra charge--are equally unimpressive, according to industry experts.

Many of the panelists during the three days of the trade show, which ends today, say the answer to cable’s doldrums is money. Money for programs, promotion and advertising; money for a new generation of hardware that will increase the options available in the home, and money for improved customer service.

Jonathan Dolgen, who as head of 20th Century Fox’s television division both competes with and supplies programs to cable operators, dramatized that last need by bringing his household’s cable bill with him to the keynote opening session at the Anaheim Hilton.

Dolgen, one of the panelists, asked if there was anyone there from his cable company who could help him with a problem. He had tried to get through to customer service, he said, but “the major innovation from my cable company is now you call up (for help) and you get the entire Brandenburg Concerto.”

Dolgen, gesturing to his $117-a-month bill, emphasized that customers don’t perceive they’re getting a lot of value for their money. “You gentlemen are charging more than you need to charge,” he told the cable operators sitting on the panel.

Ben Reichmuth, a marketing executive at Gill Cable in San Jose, told the audience at another panel session that “good value” could come not from lowering prices but by putting better equipment in subscriber’s homes. So-called “addressable” cable boxes, individually controlled by the operator, are widely thought to be beneficial because they allow addition of “pay-per-view” services.

Pay-per-view is still a hot topic: it allows viewers to pay a one-time charge to see a hit movie not yet available on Showtime or HBO, and therefore enables cable systems to compete with videocassette rentals.

One such service is appropriately called the Cable Video Store.

Yet the two largest cable operators, Time Inc.’s American Television & Communications and TeleCommunications Inc., both spurn pay-per-view.

Trygve Myhren, chairman of Time’s cable subsidiary, cited the “unfriendliness” of the special equipment needed for pay-per-view, which makes cable hookup to a videocassette recorder difficult or impossible. “It would displease more people than it would please,” he said.

Malone questioned whether the profitability of pay-per-view was sufficient to make it attractive to cable operators.

Home shopping, on the other hand, while its revenue potential might be lower, could be more profitable for cable systems, he said. If the cable industry gets about 5% of the gross over-the-phone sales, and the average cable household buys $30 to $60 of merchandise a year, Malone said, that’s an immediate $75 million to the cable industry.

If it attracts new subscribers, even better.

Home shopping puts a twist on the money issue facing cable operators--it gives subscribers something to spend it on.

Crazy Eddie’s Shopping Network, for example, has the same approach to selling home electronics as the 31-store New York-based chain that bears its name: “If you get a better price, let us know,” said Don Linares.

Shop Television Network has enlisted the services of Pat Boone and product experts to add info-talk to the service. It began in October and operates three hours a day on existing cable channels as well as syndicated broadcast stations.

Cable Value Network has been going 24-hours-a-day since September. QVC began operation only this week and joins the full-time ranks in January.

There’s more than just shopping going on here--it’s entertainment too.

At TelShop, the hosts often introduce products with impromptu sketches and chat on the air with buyers. Ericson refers to herself and fellow hostess Madeline Press as “black belt shoppers.”

“We want it to be fun,” she said.