Ventura Expected to Block Proposed 6% Cable TV Rate Hike

Plans by the city’s largest cable television operator to boost its basic rates by 6% have the City Council tuning in for a fight.

The City Council is expected to invoke its legal right Monday night to block the proposed increase and force Century Communications Corp. to justify charging what already amounts to the highest rates in the county.

“These guys have got no clue,” said Ventura City Councilman Jack Tingstrom. “They don’t know how much trouble they’re already in.”

The city in recent years has heard an earful from many of Century’s 15,800 subscribers who have long complained about poor service and

astronomical rates.

The council’s latest move comes as the city considers renewing its 15-year franchise agreements with Century Communications as well as Avenue TV Cable, which serves another 10,500 subscribers in Ventura.

“We are more focused on [Century] because of the fact that they are seeking franchise renewal,” City Atty. Bob Boehm said. “Probably, the city could have been more focused on them in the past.”

Century officials in Van Nuys said General Manager Stephen J. Frantela was busy in meetings and would have no comment on the matter until Monday.

Century first informed the city on Monday of its planned rate increase.

The company proposes to increase the basic cable rates from $31.50 to $33.39 per month, as well as raise equipment and installation costs.

There are no plans to increase premium cable rates, Frantela wrote in a letter to City Manager Donna Landeros.

“The basic rate increase is due partly to changes in operating costs, programming costs and partly to inflation,” Frantela wrote.

Since January, the city has asked Century in three letters to send the necessary paperwork justifying the rates that consumers had been paying.

On each occasion, the company ignored the request.

“We’ve asked nicely a number of times,” Boehm said. “Now we’re not being quite as nice.”

In 1992, Congress gave local governments the power to police cable rates under a complex set of federal rate guidelines.

Citing its authority under the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act, the City Council on Monday is expected to vote to prohibit the rate increase. The council will again order the cable provider to justify its rates within 10 days or risk having the city set the rate.

Boehm said Century may yet work to exempt itself from the rate justification law, which it could do by successfully petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to declare that “effective competition” exists in the city.

That might be hard for weary cable subscribers in Ventura to grasp, considering they cannot choose which of the two cable providers to subscribe to.

Although both companies operate in the city’s franchise area, their service areas do not overlap.

But Boehm said that the FCC defines “effective competition” as existing when two cable companies simply operate within the same franchise area, theorizing that either company could expand its service area if it chooses.

“I’m going to tell them [Century] they’re out of touch with the people they serve,” Tingstrom said. “All we’re getting is complaints as to their basic cable rates and all of their other rates. They’re handling themselves as a total monopoly. I guess they feel that you can’t touch ‘em.”