Odds Are the Gaming Channel Will Still Play on Santa Ana TV

Financially troubled Adelphia Communications Corp. is facing another crisis of sorts in Santa Ana, where city officials oppose a new gaming channel the company is offering in its cable-TV service.

Mayor Pro Tem Patricia A. McGuigan is leading the opposition to the gaming channel, where viewers can place bets on horse races. But she and other city officials concede that the channel is probably here to stay.

“Gaming is inappropriate on a TV cable system. I would rather that Adelphia use that channel for educational programming,” said McGuigan.

Rip Ribble, executive director of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services Agency, which contracts for cable-television service, said he wrote a letter last month to Adelphia, expressing the city’s opposition to the new channel.

But company officials have yet to reply, he said.

“We don’t have any control over it, but our concern is that people can get addicted to gaming,” Ribble said. “We want our local channels to be used for wholesome programming about the community; to add to the city’s quality of life.”

The channel is offered at no extra cost to basic subscribers, who pay $10.95 a month.

Adelphia is the only cable provider in the city, and its contract expires next month. Ribble said the contract will probably be renewed despite the controversy over the channel, which debuted in April.

Pam Carpenter, Adelphia’s representative in Santa Ana, said the gaming channel is also available in five other Orange County cities where the company has contracts. Santa Ana is the only city that has complained about the new service, she said. Adelphia, the nation’s sixth-largest cable company, is the leading cable provider in Southern California, where it has 1.2 million customers.

The company is teetering on bankruptcy, claiming debts of more than $15 billion. Lenders and investors have pressured the Rigas family to relinquish control of the company, which they did Thursday.

The company was founded by John Rigas, who at one time was its chairman, chief executive and president.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating about $3.1 billion borrowed by Rigas family partnerships using Adelphia, which is a public company, as a guarantor.

Adelphia’s financial troubles prompted McGuigan to wonder with whom the city will be dealing in the future for cable services. “Talks on the [contract] extension are ongoing, but we’re in limbo because we don’t know what’s going to happen to the cable system,” she said.