Cable Firm Says It Will Obey City, Cut Rates

Century Cable subscribers this week will begin seeing the benefits of a city-ordered rate rollback on their monthly bills.

A Century executive confirmed Tuesday that beginning today the company will comply with the city’s demand that rates be cut by $6.43 per month.

Also, Century must issue retroactive refunds of $7.59 monthly over the next year--a total of $91.08 per household.

The rollback affects 15,800 Century subscribers in the city.

“We’ve always said from the beginning we would follow the city rate order,” said Bill Rosendahl, Century’s senior vice president for cable operations.

Still, city officials remained wary.

On Tuesday--the last day before the rate-cut order was to take effect--Century executives refused to tell the city whether the company would comply, city officials said.

“If in the month of July, Century subscribers don’t receive the rollback they were promised by Century, Century really better be forewarned that they will feel the wrath of the residents,” Mayor Jim Friedman said. “I think there will be a resident uprising the likes of which has never been seen, certainly in this county.”

Under the city’s order, monthly rates for basic cable service are to be reduced from $31.50 to $25.07.

The rate-cut order followed a city analysis of the company’s prices last spring.

The analysis by city-hired consultants concluded that Century had been significantly overcharging its subscribers for months.

Despite Century’s compliance, the rate dispute is not over.

The Federal Communications Commission has not ruled on any of the petitions Century has filed with the federal agency, including requests that the city be stripped of its rate-setting authority and that the rate cut be temporarily halted until that ruling is made.

“The process continues,” Rosendahl said. “Time will tell what the resolution is with the FCC.”

The rate cut was ordered by the City Council on April 27.

The move followed years of complaints by Century subscribers, who consider the cable provider to be an unresponsive corporate giant operating with no competition. The result, many subscribers argue, is poor service at bloated rates, accusations the company has repeatedly denied.

Beginning last fall, as the city began considering whether to renew Century’s 15-year franchise to provide cable television in the eastern portion of the city, Century ignored three letters from the city to file FCC forms justifying its rates--the highest in Ventura County.

Instead, the company announced in March it would raise rates by 6% and soon after filed a petition challenging the city’s rate-setting authority before the FCC.

It was those moves that prompted the council to scale back Century’s rates three weeks later.

Bob Therrien, a Century subscriber who lives in the Ventura Keys, said he uses Century because satellite television service does not offer the local programming he watches most.

But Therrien said Century’s latest move to comply with the rate cut doesn’t matter much to him.

“I don’t care what the rates are,” he said. “As soon as there is competition, I’m getting rid of them. It just leaves a sour taste in my mouth.”

The battle over prices in Ventura is not the first time Century has come under fire for excessive rates.

The FCC in November ordered the company to reduce its rates and pay several million dollars in rebates to subscribers in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Marina del Rey and other Southern California communities.

And in April, Century Southwest Cable Television, a subsidiary of Century Communications, agreed to pay $12.3 million to Los Angeles subscribers and city government to settle allegations that it charged excessive rates. The settlement totaled about $80 for each of the company’s more than 130,000 subscribers in Los Angeles.