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City to Assign Cable Television Franchise to Time Warner

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 October 2005, 00:00 CDT

By Ryan Garrett, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Oct. 4--City officials are expected to assign a cable television franchise owned by bankrupt Adelphia Communications to Time Warner Cable today, but it could be awhile before customers in the Owensboro market see any changes.

The franchise assignment is "one part of a multistep process," Robert Trott, Adelphia's general manager for Kentucky, said Monday.

Trott said he doesn't expect the deal between Adelphia and its purchasers, Time Warner and Comcast Corp., to wrap up until the second quarter of next year. Even then, customers may not notice any difference other than who they make their checks out to for a long time.

"All indications are, at least for the time being, we'll just see a name change," Trott said during a telephone interview from his Richmond office.

Along with the rebranding, Time Warner will be evaluating operations and channel lineups, Trott said. Any lineup changes probably wouldn't happen before fall 2006, he said.

One change Trott does have in mind is a local broadcast basic tier for the Owensboro market. This would allow customers to get just the local channels, and perhaps a handful of others. Trott said he plans to suggest that Time Warner consider adding such a tier to Adelphia's current offerings here.

City Manager Bob Whitmer has recommended that the City Commission approve the franchise assignment, expected to go into effect about Oct. 16.

The city's cable consultants, Washington, D.C.,-based Rice, Williams Associates, reviewed a Time Warner filing and found no major issues of noncompliance with the current franchise agreement, Whitmer said.

After the city adopts the order, Time Warner will agree to abide by the current agreement, and the city will retain the right to address any issues discovered later that may have occurred before the transfer, Whitmer said.

If the order is not adopted, the city has no effective recourse against Time Warner if Adelphia fails to comply with the terms of the franchise prior to the transfer, Whitmer said.

The city hasn't had any problems collecting franchise fees, but "if Adelphia is no longer in existence, the city wants to hold someone for any noncompliance issues we may discover at a later date," Whitmer said.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

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TWX,

Source: Messenger-Inquirer

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