Panel recommends council adjust cable rates, fees; AMC decision to come
Jeff Mills, city electrical engineer, discusses changes to the city-owned cable TV rate structure to keep it competitive in the wake of rising programming costs.
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Monday, Dec. 14, 2015, 11:55 p.m. — At its meeting tonight, the Bardstown City Council will consider three changes designed to help reduce the financial impact of coming higher programming fees on Bardstown Cable TV subscribers.
The city council’s electric and cable TV committee approved recommendations that were presented to the committee by Jeff Mills, the city’s electrical engineer.
BASIC CABLE RATE DROP, INTERNET RATE HIKE. Mills proposed the committee approve lowering the customer charge for Basic cable, which is the fee customers pay before the cost of programming is added and raise the rate for Internet access by approximately the same amount.
The current cost of Basic cable (channels 2-22) is $18.86, with about $13 of the being the customer charge and the rest is the cost of programming. Mills proposed dropping the customer charge from $13 to $10. With programming fees, the total for Basic cable next year would be about $17.12.
The lower cable TV rate would be coupled with a rate increase to cable Internet subscribers. However, those who subscribe to both cable TV and Internet would see no net increase in their monthly bill, other than the programming fees set to take affect next year.
Internet-only subscribers will would see their rate increase approximately $3.30, Mills explained.
NEW FAMILY TIER. In an effort to ease the rising prices of cable TV service, the city can create a “family tier” which removes all of the sports channels from the Extended Basic — Channels 23 through 30.
Sports programming is some of a cable TV system’s most expensive programming, Mills said. Subscribers who opt for the family tier could save $14.66 a month on their cable bill. The only drawback is that due to existing network contract agreements, the family tier could only be offered to no more than 3-1/2 percent of the system’s total subscribers, and the cable system could not advertise its availability.
CHEAPER SET-TOP FEES. Mills also proposed the city lower the cost for rental of its set-top HD and HD DVR units.
Currently, the monthly rental for an HD set-top box is $5 and $10 for a DVR. The monthly rental fee would be reduced by $2 for both units. Mills explained that the reduction is possible after the cable system’s actual costs to provide the units was determined, and the fact that a cheaper set-top equipment is now available.
The committee agreed to recommend the three initiatives to the full council at its meeting Tuesday, Dec. 15.
AMC DECISION TO COME. The committee discussed ongoing negotiations with AMC Networks, and the financial impact keeping the network will have on cable TV rates. The National Cable TV Co-op is negotiating with the network on behalf of the hundreds of cable systems it represents, including Bardstown Cable TV.
AMC is asking for a significant increase in the fee it receives from cable companies. It is also requiring them to add five of the network’s lesser-known channels to Expanded Basic cable, which is channels 23 to 77 on the Bardstown Cable TV system.
Three of the five channels it is requiring move to Expanded Basic are already broadcast on the cable system’s Digital Basic tier, including the Independent Film Channel (Ch. 201), BBC America (Ch. 130) and Women’s Entertainment (Ch. 150). The other two new ones cable systems are being required to carry are BBC World News and the Sundance Channel.
The additional channels will consume bandwidth that could eventually mean running short of bandwidth down the road, Mills told the committee. AMC is also requiring cable systems to agree to a 10-year term for its renewal agreements, which has been a bone of contention for cable TV operators.
Mills said AMC is trying to use the popularity of “The Walking Dead” as a way to push cable companies into the longer term agreement. The network has run TV spots during this season’s episodes of “The Walking Dead” warning viewers that their cable company may drop the network and advising them to call their cable operator to support keeping the network.
The decision on programming ultimately is up to the Cable Programming Committee, whose meeting has been moved to Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015.
If AMC is renewed and channels are moved from Digital Basic to Expanded Basic, the programming committee will also need to select new channels to replace the three moved out of the digital tiers. Mills said one of those may be the Smithsonian HD, which was recently dropped from the HD Extreme programming tier.
NEXT UP. The Bardstown City Council will consider the committee’s recommendations at its meeting 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2015, in the Council Chambers at the City Hall Annex on Xavier Drive.
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