CABLE TV FRANCHISE AGREEMENT IS EVASIVE

The city of Cape Girardeau and TCI Cablevision hope to complete a new cable TV franchise agreement within the next 30 days and end 2 1/2 years of negotiations.

The previous franchise agreement expired Dec. 6, 1992. Since then, the city council has granted a series of extensions as negotiations continued between City Attorney Warren Wells and TCI officials.

The latest extension expired Jan. 22, but neither party is pushing for another extension.

"We have come a long way and agreed on almost everything," Wells said. "I would prefer to think at this point that we are very close to reaching agreement."

He added that he hopes an agreement can be reached within the next 30 days.

Cablevision Manager Roger Harms said, "I am an optimist and I hope it is wrapped up as soon as possible."

But both sides agree there is still a major sticking point. The city wants an eight-year agreement while the cable company wants a 15-year pact.

The city previously wanted a five-year term.

Harms said it isn't unreasonable to want a 15-year franchise when the company is planning to spend millions to upgrade the local cable system. Improvements will include installation of fiber optics.

TCI is the largest cable operator in the nation. Locally, the company has about 10,000 subscribers in Cape Girardeau and another 3,500 to 4,000 in Jackson and rural Cape Girardeau County.

There is no franchise agreement with the county. TCI's franchise agreement with Jackson is patterned after the one in Cape Girardeau.

Wells said if no agreement is reached, the city will go to court.

Wells said the new franchise agreement should address consumer complaints about service and the reliability of the cable system.

The current draft of the agreement calls for the cable company to upgrade the system within 18 months after the agreement has been enacted.

"A major feature of the upgrade is that it will increase the number of channels possible and then the public access channel can have its own space," Wells said.

Currently, the access channel shares space with C-SPAN on Channel 5. That has created scheduling conflicts and made it difficult to expand local community programming, Wells said.

Harms said TCI is committed to upgrading the cable system. It recently moved into a new building on North Kingshighway.

"I have made plans to go ahead full steam," he said, adding:

"I pay a franchise fee and I have over 30 some employees that work in this community. I make a tremendous investment in this community."

The city receives $158,000 a year in cable franchise fee revenue.

Wells said the franchise fee is actually paid by the subscribers.

"The cost of providing any service is always borne by the consumer," he said.