What cable customers like
By Stephen Keating
Denver Post Business Writer
March 16 - If cable TV customers of TeleCommunications Inc. in Denver had their way, they'd get rid of home shopping channels, add a la carte options and pay more to get more services.
They're generally satisfied with TCI, but think cable costs too much compared with other utilities. People who don't subscribe at all say cable doesn't improve one's quality of life.
Those opinions and many others come from a phone survey of 804 Denver residents conducted last fall by the Denver office of telecommunications.
The snapshot of attitudes toward the incumbent cable company comes at a time of increased competition for TCI and a lengthy franchise renewal process. The survey, which was released recently, cost $27,000 to collect and analyze. It is a step in the process that will culminate in a public vote sometime next year on whether to renew TCI's franchise.
"We're overall pleased with it," said Margaret Lejuste, director of government and community affairs for TCI of Colorado, which serves 108,000 subscribers in Denver and another 322,000 in the metro area. "It's obvious that our challenge is to communicate the value of cable to our customers."
Survey results indicate a broader challenge to meet future expectations of residents, almost half of whom have a computer at home. Many want more a la carte channel options and access to two-way communication services long promised by TCI.
Those services require a rebuild of the cable system, which is ongoing, and wide deployment of digital set-top boxes that could provide a range of new services.
"All the surveys indicate a strong desire to interact electronically with schools and local government," said Dean Smits, director of the Denver office of telecommunications. "I have also been urging representatives of TCI to consider the high number of personal computer owners in Denver, 70 percent of whom subscribe to an online service."
TCI lost a Boulder franchise renewal vote by a 2-to-1 ratio in 1995 and is renegotiating with the city. A TCI official later said that launching high-speed cable Internet service in Boulder might have changed the outcome of the election.
The Denver metro area is one of the biggest systems owned by TCI, based at the Denver Tech Center, and one of the markets identified by the parent company as due for new services.
"Obviously we're talking about a franchise renewal that will include discussions of how we will upgrade the plant and improve services for the future," said Lejuste.
TCI became the dominant cable operator in the Denver metro area by buying up systems over the past few years from Jones Intercable, ATC, United Cable and Mile Hi Cable, the company that won Denver's initial 15-year cable franchise in 1984. The clustering of cable systems under one company is occurring across the country.
Government regulation of cable-TV service is a mishmash. The Federal Communications Commission reviews rates. Local governments issue franchise agreements, take complaints and collect 5 percent fees from subscriber bills, $2 million a year in Denver's case.
What networks are on the lineup is primarily the decision of the cable operator. Up to one-third of the channels are filled with local broadcast stations that federal law requires be carried, including, in some cases, home shopping channels.
An impressive 84 percent of survey respondents said shopping channels were "not at all important." Weather, news, sports, science and documentary programming got the highest marks.
Other programming categories include public, educational and government (PEG) channels that were negotiated as part of cable franchise agreements. The survey found generally positive attitudes toward PEG channels, and toward TCI's cable programming overall.
But there was overwhelming support for a la carte channel selection and payment, with 89 percent of respondents citing it as "important" or "very important."
A la carte means the ability to pay for only the channels you want.
Currently, TCI subscribers in Denver have the option to buy a basic monthly package of 20 mostly broadcast channels (for $10.78), another 30 channels like CNN, MTV, ESPN and Disney (for another $14.10) and a digital cable package of up to 35 more channels starting at an additional $10 a month. There are also options to separately buy premium channels like HBO.
What TCI does not yet offer are separately priced basic channel packages, which satellite services and some other cable companies do. In Loveland and Longmont, for example, Comcast cable will offer a mini-package of seven channels, including American Movie Classics and TV Land, for $3.88 a month starting April 1.
TCI does not do that in Denver, citing technical restrictions in its cable system.
Rebuilding TCI's cable system in the Denver metro area from 450 to 750 megahertz may solve some of the concerns expressed in the survey, said Lejuste. A 750 MHz system could potentially deliver many more channel options, Internet and phone services.
TCI has been promising such a rebuild since 1994, but the parent company's financial problems have delayed the project. Only Edgewater, Lakewood and parts of Aurora are rebuilt in the Denver metro area. Those areas get eight extra channels, including Comedy Central, which TCI dropped from Denver's system in late 1996.
"We are hearing through some newspaper articles and KBCO that there's a heightened awareness that Comedy Central is available in some areas," said Lejuste. "We're pleased that we're able to offer Comedy in our rebuilt areas. As we upgrade, we will consider adding it back elsewhere."
The survey also included questions answered by 388 non-cable subscribers. To the question, "Do you believe having a subscription to cable television improves one's quality of life," seven of 10 of the non-subscribers answered no.
For more information on the cable subscriber survey, or related topics, contact the Denver Office of Telecommunications at 303-640-2845.
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