YORBA LINDA : Council Postpones Cable Rate Hearing

A public hearing on recent cable rate adjustments was indefinitely postponed this week by the Yorba Linda City Council.

Assistant City Manager David Gruchow said the city is waiting until the Federal Communications Commission issues its final ruling on what cities can regulate in their franchise agreements with cable operators.

“We have a general sense of what the FCC’s ruling will be but there has been no final ruling yet,” Gruchow said.

Currently, cities are limited to regulating what residents pay for basic cable service, based on a complicated formula established by the FCC. But the FCC could broaden its regulations to include how service is offered, for instance, allowing cities to regulate the practice of grouping channels into tiers that subscribers must pay for separately.

“The FCC has said they would possibly look at (allowing cities to regulate) tiering,” Gruchow said.

Gruchow said the rates set by the city’s cable operator, Jones-Spacelink, are slightly below the benchmark established by the FCC and that the company has been generally responsive to citizen complaints.