Pac Bell Video leaves some people who need new boxes.............
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Battle for San Jose Subs Begins
By LINDA HAUGSTED
The first volleys have been fired in San Jose, Calif., in a price war for the business of the soon-to-be-former customers of Pacific Bell Video Services.
Direct-broadcast satellite dish-dealers believe that they can capture 15 percent to 25 percent of the 8,000 cable customers who will be without a provider when the telco shuts down its system later this year. PBVS' new parent, SBC Communications Inc., is not interested in hardwired cable systems, and it announced earlier this year that it will dismantle its pilot cable system in this Silicon Valley town.
In order to keep customers from signing up with Tele-Communications Inc., major local dish-dealers notified PBVS subscribers that they will cut the price of a Digital Satellite System, and its installation, to $150. Subtract from that cost the $100 that PBVS is giving each of its households as they return the telco's set-tops, and the net cost for a DBS system could be $50.
"We've been overwhelmed with calls. People are upset that they might have to go to TCI," said Steve Bramell, owner of Cox TV & Satellite Co. in San Rafael, Calif., who said he's one of the biggest DSS dealers on the West Coast. (The business is not affiliated with Cox Communications Inc.)
Regular customers are charged $495, plus installation, for a DSS system, but Bramell said he can still make money on the $150 deal. That's because buyers often want their aging rooftop antennas reconnected and amplified so that they don't have to buy broadcast basic from TCI for $12.72 a month.
Once in the showroom, a number of customers also upgrade their televisions or invest in home-theater systems to go with their digital feed, he said.
There's plenty of business for both TCI and dish-dealers, Bramell added, but he estimated that up to 2,000 PBVS subscribers would become DBS customers, rather than going from "the best cable company to the worst."
TCI is cutting its prices, too. Former telco customers can switch without paying for installation (normally $24.95), and TCI is throwing in extra sets, as well. As an added inducement, PBVS customers will get free DMX digital-audio service and a free pay-per-view movie each month through the end of the year.
The telco's customers are aware of their options: PacBell mailed each of them a letter notifying them about the offers of the cable company and DBS dealers, said spokesman John Britton. The telco is passing on the offers because it will not release the names of customers to the competing video providers.
Britton said EchoStar Communications Corp.'s Dish Network has also indicated that it will match the offers of DSS dealers for the former PBVS customers.
But the PBVS viewers may be in no hurry to leave. Until the system shuts down, PBVS has opened all of its premium services at no charge as sort of a going-away gift.
And PBVS is still negotiating with the city of San Jose over the terms of the shutdown, so no firm closing date has been set. |
