Subscribers View Better Cable Service

The picture for cable television service on the Westside--which has been notorious for its disruptions, poor customer relations and outdated equipment--is getting brighter.

The Westside’s two primary cable operators--Century Cable in the north and American Cablesystems in the south--are spending millions of dollars to upgrade their systems.

Falcon Cable, which provides service in Malibu and Topanga and a small corner of Pacific Palisades, has also upgraded its system recently.

Industry spokesmen say this means customers’ telephone calls will be answered quicker, home service calls will be made more promptly and subscribers will get more viewing choices.

That’s good news for subscribers of Century Cable, which has been heavily criticized by both subscribers and city officials throughout the Westside ever since the company took over cable franchises in 1987 in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and parts of Los Angeles from Pacific Palisades to the Hollywood Hills.

Century Southwest Cable Television, a subsidiary of Century Communications Corp. in New Canaan, Conn., took over the Westside cable systems as part of a five-company consortium that bought Group W Cable for $2.1 billion from Westinghouse Electric Corp.

Century is in the second year of a six-year, $50-million program to upgrade the systems. Although the improvements will not be completed until 1993, the number of complaints is dwindling.

“Their problems relative to customer service and technical service have reduced greatly,” said Ian Tanza, West Hollywood’s cable/arts administrator.

“Complaints are way down,” said Fred Cunningham, who oversees cable matters for Beverly Hills.

“I have never been happier than I am today,” said William J. Rosendahl, vice president of corporate affairs for Century.

Century has been a repeated target of vandals who have damaged equipment or disrupted signals--often during broadcasts of major sports or entertainment events. Until recently, service was so bad that it was widely believed the vandals were disgruntled customers, but Rosendahl said he is convinced that could not be the case.

“I can’t believe someone would commit a criminal act over poor service,” he said. “It must be some sick, deranged individual.”

Rosendahl blames many of the company’s problems on the antiquated equipment it inherited. The technology was so outdated that customers could easily steal the service by illegally connecting to cable lines on telephone poles with coaxial cables sold at hardware stores.

Modernization of the system makes the signals difficult to steal. Some former pirates complained to Century when they could no longer get cable service free, Rosendahl said.

Century also drew many complaints when it attempted to serve more than 76,000 Westside customers from a single office in Santa Monica. Last November, Century opened a second office in West Hollywood to serve that city and Beverly Hills.

“It’s still far from perfect, but their service has improved dramatically,” said West Hollywood Councilman Paul Koretz, an outspoken critic of Century. “It used to be that people would wait 45 minutes on hold, then when someone picked up, you were disconnected.”

To most subscribers, the most noticeable modernization involves the installation of converter boxes in the homes of subscribers. The new converters, an option available at extra cost, allow Century to offer pay-per-view events such as championship fights and recently released movies.

Basic service--which usually includes all channels that can be received with a regular television antenna plus cable channels such as ESPN, MTV, CNN and WTBS--can be received without a converter box.

Century has completed its converter-box installations in West Hollywood, but installations are in progress in Beverly Hills and much of West Los Angeles and have yet to begin in Santa Monica.

It has not been a trouble-free process.. Many Century customers in West Hollywood complained because the boxes disable remote controls on televisions and videotape recorders, and prevent viewers from watching one channel while recording another.

Those problems have been remedied, Rosendahl said, by providing customers with remote controls for the boxes and installing switches that make it possible to view one channel and record off another.

In Beverly Hills, Century was fined a total of $29,250 last year--$250 a day for 117 days in which it did not respond to service calls or promptly answer the telephone as required by the franchise agreement.

But Fred Cunningham, who oversees the franchise for the city, said there has been a definite improvement in service.

“They have been meeting customer service requirements of responding to calls within 24 hours and answering the phone within two minutes,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham said that Century learned a lesson from its West Hollywood experience and has begun a public relations program to prepare subscribers for the installation of the new coverter boxes in Beverly Hills.

In Santa Monica, Century is continuing negotiations to extend its franchise. Technically, the company is operating under a revocation order issued in 1986, when the city refused to allow the transfer of the franchise from Westinghouse to Century.

Lynne C. Barrette, the assistant city manager who oversees cable operations in Santa Monica, said the city attorney is rewriting the city’s cable ordinance. She said she expects the City Council to review both the new ordinance and Century’s request for an extension in about six months.

In the Los Angeles areas served by Century--Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Westwood, Bel-Air and the Hollywood Hills--Susan Herman, who oversees cable franchises for the city, is not yet ready to praise the company.

“Pleased is too strong a word,” Herman said. “We have concerns about responsiveness to customers.”

However, she added, “they have increased the number of telephone lines so people don’t have to wait as long. They have more service representatives, extended their hours of operation and expanded the existing number of channels. They appear to be in compliance with the franchise agreement. They are making efforts.”

Herman was more generous in assessing American Cablesystems franchises in Venice, West Los Angeles, Westchester and Playa del Rey.

“It’s a pretty well-managed system,” she said. “The performance of American is very much improved from CommuniCom,” the former cable operator in West Los Angeles, which was widely criticized for its service.

American Cablesystems, which also operates the system in Culver City and the unincorporated county areas of Ladera Heights and View Park, will be renamed Continental Cablevision on July 1. Boston-based Continental Cable, the third-largest cable system in the country, purchased the Westside systems in 1987.

John F. Gibbs, Continental’s vice president for corporate and legal affairs, said the company recently spent $30 million to upgrade its systems in the Westside.

Gibbs said that while the company purchased cable systems that were near each other, the systems have been decentralized.

“We have clustered systems together, but we maintain local, almost neighborhood autonomy,” said Gibbs.

Dale Jones, chief administrative officer for Culver City, said complaints have dropped to about one a month. James Thornton, who oversees cable for the county, said complaints are almost nonexistent for his areas.

A major complaint of many cable subscribers in all areas, however, is the increasing cost of cable, a matter over which local officials have no control.

Studies indicate that cable rates have increased 32% nationally since Congress lifted virtually all regulations on cable operators in 1984. Herman said rates for basic service in the city of Los Angeles have increased 40% since 1987.

Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, monopolies and business rights, has introduced bills that would allow city governments to regulate rates, require that cable programmers make their programs available to competing technologies such as satellites and prohibit a cable company from controlling more than 25% of the cable subscribers in the country.

Last week, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, called for the Federal Communications Commission to review the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, which deregulated the industry.

Dingell said he wants to determine whether unregulated competition, which was supposed to protect the public interest, is in fact protecting consumers.

THE CABLE PICTURE

Community Company Basic Package Channels Subscribers Beverly Hills Century $23.50 60 9,000 Culver City American $18.95 52 5,700 Pacific Palisades Brentwood/Westwood Century $23.15 38 33,200 Hollywood/Mid-Wilshire American $18.95 52 49,200 Venice/Palms/Mar Vista American $18.95 57 28,800 Playa del Rey American $18.95 52 3,883 Westchester American $18.95 52 6,868 Marina del Rey Century $23.15 52 1,800 Malibu/Topanga Falcon $21.95 52 9,000 View Park-Windsor Hills Ladera Heights American $18.95 57 4,000 Santa Monica Century $23.15 37 19,000 West Hollywood Century $21.50 60 11,000

* Basic rate includes converter and remote control. Some companies charge less for basic service for those subscribers with cable-compatible television sets that do not need converter boxes, or those who do not want remote control units or monthly cable guides. The basic rate may be further lowered if a pay channel, such as HBO and Showtime is purchased. A converter box is needed, however, to subscribe to pay channels and for pay-per-view programs such as sporting events and movies.