Cable rules set for a read

June Casagrande

Back in 1966, long before anyone had ever heard of MTV or HBO, the

city adopted an ordinance to govern what would one day be called

cable TV.

Except for a few minor tweaks over nearly four decades, that

ordinance has remained pretty much the same. Until now.

On Wednesday, the City Council will get a first reading on a major

overhaul of the city’s cable TV ordinance. Once a new ordinance is

passed, the city will be in a position to head to the bargaining

table with Cox and Adelphia representatives to persuade the city’s

two cable providers to give subscribers more stations, more local

programming and better customer service.

“The only reason the city gets a say in this at all is because of

the strip of city land that the cable companies have to use,” said

City Councilman John Heffernan, who serves on the city’s

Telecommunications Committee.

Under federal communications legislation, the city does not have

the power to say which companies can provide cable service here and

which cannot. All the city can do is formalize its relationships with

the cable providers through franchise agreements. The city’s existing

agreements with its two providers expired two years ago and have been

extended through January. It’s likely that the city will need another

extension because there are only three council meetings remaining

before the end of the year, and Wednesday and Nov. 25 are scheduled

as the first and second readings of the ordinance.

“This ordinance will set the groundwork -- rules for customer

service, etc.,” said Marilee Jackson, the city’s public information

officer, who has been working on upgrading the ordinance. “Then we go

back to the individual cable operators, we sit down and hash out the

specifics of what we want from each operator.”

Besides improved customer service, the city hopes to land more and

better community programming.

For example, right now, each of the city’s two cable companies

broadcasts one city channel in Newport Beach. Officials will ask that

they each provide three local cable channels, which would be filled

with community, educational and government programming such as

broadcasts of school sports.