Saratoga News

Council tells TCI manager it's not happy with planned changes

Action could cause delay in adjourned-meeting coverage

Price hike also in the works

By Sarah Lombardo

Saratogans may soon have to click farther up the dial to see their local cable-access channel, KSAR-TV, according to changes proposed by TCI Cablevision general manager Keith Relph. And residents could be paying more for cable, too, beginning June 1.

The changes are part of TCI's move to incorporate digital technology in its service. According to Relph, who addressed the City Council May 6, both basic cable service and expanded cable will include more stations, and more programming will be available for residents to choose from beginning in mid-June.

But the changes will also include a realignment of stations and channels and an increase of about $2 a month for basic cable service. Expanded service, Relph said, will go down about 71 cents a month.

Relph said the realignment is an effort to eventually have standardized channels and stations throughout the Bay Area, so that the local cable-access channel and other stations are the same from one city to the next.

TCI proposes moving KSAR-TV from its current home on channel 6 to channel 8, saying that KICU (Channel 36), which is broadcast on channel 6 in many Bay Area cities, has requested channel 6 in Saratoga.

Saratoga City Councilmembers questioned the cable provider's legal authorityto move KSAR from channel 6 to channel 8, and bristled at Relph's reference to a line in the franchise agreement between the city and TCI regarding such a move. TCI's interpretation of the franchise agreement and the council's seem to differ, and councilmembers complained that they have been asking for a legal explanation from TCI of the channel change for months--without success.

"It's nice to hear about all the good things coming down the road, but first things first," Councilmember Jim Shaw said.

"Are you aware how inconvenient this change would be for Saratogans, your customers?" Councilmember Gillian Moran asked Relph.

Relph said TCI was preparing an explanation for the needed channel switch, and it would be delivered to the city within a week. He also pointed out that a second public-access channel, channel 27, is scheduled to be introduced for Saratoga when the realignment takes place in June.

"We are perfectly aware that this will be inconvenient," Relph said. "We want to mitigate that as much as possible."

The proposed changes in TCI's lineup have created problems in the city's effort to televise all council and Planning Commission meetings, pushing back the date when council adjourned-meeting coverage was to begin. The latest development is no different: When Mayor Don Wolfe asked if the changes would be completed in time for the council's proposed Tuesday-night council coverage slated for June 1, Relph said changes would most likely not be completed until June 15.

Councilmember Paul Jacobs also took issue with the proposed increase in basic cable rates. "I don't know enough about cable programming to know how much you pay for programming or the problems you face," Jacobs said. "But it amounts to about a 25 percent increase now over the past three years, which signals to me that something is wrong in the cable industry."

"I hope we've delivered some sort of message that some of the councilmembers are not happy with how your company has handled the situation," Shaw said. "Where is the input from the people you serve? Maybe we don't want 119 channels."

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