OCN Falls Victim to the Realities of Cable TV

Adelphia Cable has decided to terminate Orange County News-sChannel (July 31) because it is losing “large sums of money” and the financial picture has not improved since Adelphia acquired OCN in October 1999.

My family, friends and I enjoy viewing OCN. It was able to report on stories that were of concern to the large and diverse Orange County population that often wereas overlooked by the Los Angeles TV broadcasters.

I could not find another channel, with the exception of the city hall channels, that demonstrated daily what the community access television concept should be.

There was a time when cable companies were granted franchises for a limited period to fulfill quality service, programming and, most important, an outlet for community access. If community access was not fulfilled, the cable company lost its franchise and o. Other cable companies could bid for it. Now, with the lack of competition between cable companies due to buy-outs and takeovers, the few remaining huge cable companies can drop any programming based on economic factors without fear of losing its franchise with the city.

According to Adelphia, this includes local programming, without any repercussions from any governing body looking out for the citizens of the community.

Tthe cleverly constructed and deceptive telecommunications bill was supposed to create healthy competition among phone, cable, and utilities companies and provide better service at lower cost to the customer. In reality, the bill created the reverse.

OCN is another victim of this bill.

Daniel Torres

Fullerton