LOCAL CABLE SYSTEM TO ADD 14 CHANNELS IN CAPE AND JACKSON

Local cable subscribers soon will have more channels to watch. Charter Communications Inc. is adding 14 channels to its expanded basic cable service.

The cable company plans to add the channels to its local system, one distribution area at a time. The channels are slated to be added in June and July in Cape Girardeau and in August and September in Jackson.

New equipment will be installed on the cable lines, necessitating a shut down of cable service for a day as each distribution area or node is hooked up to allow for the added service.

Each node can serve up to 500 customers, said Roger Harms, general manager for Charter Communications cable system in Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

In Cape Girardeau, there are 60 nodes that must be upgraded to provide for the added channel capability. Jackson is served by about 20 distribution areas.

The company hopes to keep the shutdown time for each cluster of subscribers to a minimum. "We will start at 7 a.m. and try to have everything up and running by 5 o'clock" Harms said.

The work will begin in South Cape Girardeau where Charter Communications is building a new master head-end facility to process signals from satellites, local television stations and other sources to transmit to its cable customers.

Harms said Charter plans to spend $3.5 billion over the next four years to improve its cable systems nationwide.

Locally, the company is spending $3.2 million on the head-end facility in Cape Girardeau and almost $12 million on other upgrades, Harms said.

The added channels will come at a cost. "There will be a price increase," said Harms.

Harms said the company isn't ready to disclose the price increase yet. He said the price increase probably will be announced within the next several weeks.

The price increase will take effect for customers after they start receiving the added channels.

Customers currently pay $29.60 a month for basic and expanded basic cable service, which includes the 5 percent franchise fee paid to the city.

Last June, the cable system raised its rates by 5 percent for basic and expanded basic to recover increased operating costs. At that time the system was owned by Falcon Cable.

Harms said Monday that the latest price increase is needed to offset added costs associated with expanding the channel lineup. "Programming costs are tremendous on some of those channels," he said.

The added channels will bring to 32 the number of expanded basic channels. Basic and expanded basic cable service combined would have some 45 channels, he said.

The local cable system serves about 14,500 households in the Cape Girardeau and Jackson area. About 95 percent of them have expanded basic service, Harms said.

Charter had planned to publicly announce the added channels this summer. But word leaked out after the channels started appearing on the menu of channels for the company's digital subscribers in the area.

Harms said his office has had a number of calls from subscribers who viewed the updated menu and wanted to know about the expanded lineup.

About 1,500 area households have digital cable service. Harms said the cable company provided the expanded channel lineup to the firm that maintains the televised channel menu for the digital service. That lineup had to be provided in advance of when the channels actually air on the system, he said.

The cable company plans to add additional channels this fall

Improvements will mean increased reliability and better picture quality on the local cable system, Harms said.

"I am excited about it," he said. "I think our customers are too."

Ultimately, Charter Communications plans to have 150 channels on the cable system, including basic, expanded basic, digital, premium, pay-per-view, audio and data channels.

Charter has about 6 million customers nationwide.

NEW CABLE CHANNELS

The 14 channels Charter Communications will add to expanded basic cable service:

ESPN2

Learning Channel

Comedy Central

Court TV

Speedvision (world of motorsports)

Country Music Television

MSNBC

Animal Planet

Food Network

Travel Channel

TV Land

Soap Network

E! Entertainment TV

Health Network.