CITY BOARD SEEKS CABLE TV SURVEY

Cape Girardeau's Cable Television Advisory Board wants the City Council to survey cable customers regarding service, programming and the public access channel.

Under terms of the franchise agreement, cable operator Charter Communications would pay for the cost of the survey.

The board has recommended the City Council require Charter Communications to send out the survey with the monthly cable bills beginning with the July billing cycle. The recommendation calls for Charter to complete the survey work by Sept. 15 and report the findings to the council by Oct. 16.

The council could consider the recommendation as early as its June 5 meeting.

Last week's board action wasn't unanimous. The board agreed to send the survey questions to the council for its approval.

But the board initially rejected a motion calling on the council to proceed with the survey under the proposed timetable. Board members then reconsidered, approving the motion on a vote of 6-2 with one abstention.

Board member Daniel Rau thinks the board made the right decision. Rau served on the advisory board's subcommittee that drew up the 20-question survey.

Among other things, the survey would ask customers what three cable channels they would like to see added to the existing lineup and what three existing channels they want removed.

The survey includes questions about the quality of cable reception and repair service. It asks a number of questions about the public access channel, including whether it is important to televise council and school board meetings.

Rau said Wednesday that it makes sense to survey cable subscribers while Charter Communications is working to upgrade the local cable system and add channels.

The survey, he said, would allow cable customers to be "the agent of change" in improving the system.

Under the franchise agreement, the cable company would provide channels requested by 50 percent or more of the survey respondents if it is "legally, technically and economically viable" to do so.

Charter Communications is operating under a revised franchise agreement approved by the city in March. The agreement covers five years backdated to Jan. 1, 1998, when the original franchise agreement was put in place. There also is a provision for a five-year extension.

Under the agreement the council can order the cable company to conduct two customer surveys during the five years with no more than one survey in a two-year period, Rau said.

The city currently is in the third year of the franchise agreement and has yet to order a survey. If a survey isn't conducted this year the city won't have a chance to do a second survey before the end of the contract period, Rau said.

The city should take advantage of the provisions allowed in the franchise agreement, he said, and "get all our bang for the buck."

"Now is a golden opportunity," said Rau.

Board member Mark Lanzotti agreed. "It is sort of strike while the iron is hot," he said. "While the change is occurring it is easier to affect that change."

But Jim Dufek, who chairs the board, disagreed. Dufek said customers should be surveyed after Charter Communications has finished changing its channel lineup and expanding services. "I think we ought to wait," said Dufek.

The cable board started talking about doing a survey as long ago as last year. But since then the cable system changed ownership. Charter Communications came in and announced it planned to make major improvements in everything from equipment to programming on the Cape Girardeau-Jackson system at a cost of more than $15 million.

Earlier this week Charter announced it would add 14 channels to its expanded basic cable service. The company said still more channels would be added to the system later this year.

Dufek doesn't believe programming will be a major issue with Charter Communications, which has some 6 million cable customers nationwide. Charter, he said, carries most of the popular channels.

As Dufek sees it, the most important changes in the future will deal with the merging of cable television, telephone and Internet services. A customer would be able to access everything from e-mail to programming over a single system, he said.

Roger Harms, general manager of the local cable system, said surveys cost money. "Whenever it costs money it always falls back on the subscribers' lap," he said.

Harms would prefer to delay the survey until after the changes are made. That could put the survey off until next year.

Harms said Charter plans to add a number of channels that subscribers want such as sports channel ESPN2.

Said Harms, "We are going to launch just about everything our customers said they want to see anyway."