GLENDALE : System for Sale, but Cable to Be Upgraded

The oft-criticized cable company serving Glendale and Burbank is up for sale, but company officials say it won’t affect an estimated $15-million renovation of the system to increase channels and provide other service improvements.

The system is owned by Dallas-based Sammons Enterprises, which announced this week it intends to sell its interests in the cable TV business, including systems in 19 states with more than 1.1 million subscribers.

Local officials said the announcement could benefit Glendale and Burbank.

“Obviously they’re going to get a higher price for their business if they have a signed contract and bring their system up to current standards,” said Glendale Mayor Eileen Givens.

Sammons, which has 43,000 subscribers in Glendale and another 35,000 in Burbank, has been criticized for having too few channels--41--while cable operators in neighboring communities typically offer 60 or more. Residents have also long complained about service interruptions and poor customer service.

But under a new contract, which is expected to be signed by the company and approved by the Burbank and Glendale city councils before the end of the year, the firm agrees to increase its system’s capacity to 78 channels and replace its 20-year-old coaxial wire system with a fiber-optic network to improve picture quality and service reliability.

The 10-year contract requires that the system overhaul be completed within three years.

If the company is sold, the contract would transfer to its new owners, officials said.

Vartan Taikaldiranian, a Glendale resident who said his family has subscribed to Sammons for more than 10 years, said the addition of more channels is long overdue.

“It’s terrible, because whenever you visit your friends in Los Angeles or other cities, they have ESPN-2 and all these channels that we don’t have,” said Taikaldiranian, 29.

“And we’re paying good money for it, too.”

Customers pay $24.05 a month for basic service on the system.

Sammons officials said the new agreement will bring the system up to the level of other local cable operations.

“I think the customers are going to be very pleased with the end result,” said Shirley Orr, general manager of Sammons Communications in Glendale. “With the quality of the fiber-optics and the increase in channels, the system will be up to date.”

Sammons Enterprises spokesman Joe Barta said the privately owned company--which also has interests in insurance, bottled water and industrial equipment--has decided to get out of the cable business because of the high cost of upgrading outmoded systems and because of projected competition from telephonic and direct-broadcast satellite systems.