Cable Rates Roll Back After Negotiations Break Down : Television: Viewers will receive refunds and lower prices that the Simi Valley council approved last month. Comcast Cablevision officials consider appeal to FCC.

Negotiations over Simi Valley’s cable television rates broke down this week, meaning cable viewers will receive the refunds and lower monthly rates the City Council approved last month.

Officials from Comcast Cablevision, who are considering an appeal to the Federal Communications Commission, said they believed they were close to an agreement with the city on a new rate structure, and were surprised to learn Thursday that the city was ending negotiations, said Jeff Carlson, the company’s regional vice president.

“We believe we addressed all the city’s concerns,” he said. “It wasn’t my impression that we were far from an agreement.”

The talks started after the City Council ordered the company to lower rates by 20 cents and pay refunds to its 28,000 Simi Valley customers for certain charges during the past year.

Although they voted to order the lower rates, the council members also asked that the company and the city staff try to renegotiate a rate structure agreeable to both sides.

Now that talks have broken down, the rate rollbacks and refunds approved by the council will automatically go into effect. The company can appeal the council’s decision to the FCC before a March 17 deadline, which is 30 days after the council voted to lower the rates.

“I’m surprised by all this,” said Carlson. “We’ll consider our options, but I would not want to speculate about what our response will be.”

The two sides had an agreement for a short time, said Joe Hreha, who oversees the utility for the city, but Comcast wanted to make substantial changes at the last minute.

“We had a negotiated agreement on Feb. 22, which was solidified at a later meeting,” Hreha said. “Then on Feb. 28 we got a letter and instead of concurrence we got a 13-page counterproposal, which was a significant departure from what we had agreed.”

This will be the third rate rollback since the city was given authority to regulate local cable service charges under the federal Cable Act of 1992. The law allows cities and counties to regulate only the charges for basic rates and services. The city is not allow to set rates for premium channels such as HBO and Cinemax.

Along with a cut in basic service charges from $21.90 to $21.70, the company will have to lower the cost of several other services, Hreha said. Comcast will have to charge less for an optional service called CableGuard, which provides a warranty for cable equipment in homes.

If Comcast decides to appeal the rate rollbacks, the city will have to retain an attorney to help prepare a report to counter the appeal, Hreha said. It could take anywhere from six months to a year for the FCC to hear the case, and in the meantime both rates and service would stay at the rate the council set.