MOORPARK : Cable Firm to Nearly Double Channels

Ventura County Cablevision has agreed to replace Moorpark’s entire cable system using fiber optic lines that will nearly double the number of channels available to subscribers and increase the quality of reception, city officials said Friday.

Johnnie Giles, the cable company’s director of governmental affairs, said rebuilding Moorpark’s system will begin in 1993 and will be completed by September, 1994. The company will pay for the project.

Ventura County Cablevision had agreed in its 1990 franchise agreement with the city to replace the more than 10-year-old coaxial system with another coaxial system that had greater capacity.

But with the emergence of fiber optics as a more effective way to carry a signal, city officials had been lobbying the company to assume the extra cost of using that technology.

Giles said using the new technology will cost the company $2 million, about $500,000 more than it would have paid to install new coaxial cables. About 6,000 customers in Moorpark are linked by 75 miles of cable wiring, Giles said.

Councilman Scott Montgomery said city residents will see the benefits of fiber optics in the quality of their cable signal and the number of channels, which will increase from 37 to 62.

Between 1,500 and 2,000 Moorpark residents in the Mountain Meadows area are serviced by a separate cable company called Entertainment Express, and the services are not currently linked to allow simultaneous live broadcasts through the entire city.

The result is that while City Council meetings are aired live for Ventura County Cablevision subscribers, Mountain Meadows residents are offered only a taped version of the meeting after it has occurred. The new system will allow the the systems to connect and carry live broadcasts citywide.

Deputy City Manager Richard Hare said the city won’t have to wait until the next system-wide rebuilding to get the latest technology.