TCI TO HIKE EXPANDED-BASIC SERVICE COST, ADD CHANNEL

TCI plans to bill its customers $25.99 a month for expanded-basic service starting in June, up 4 percent from the $24.97 that has been in effect since June 1996.

At the same time, TCI plans to add WDKA, the new UPN network station, to its lineup without dropping any other stations.

TCI has raised or lowered expanded-basic rates 11 times since 1991, when in May it raised the price of expanded basic to $20.30 a month.

On the whole, TCI rate increases have slightly outpaced inflation since then, even though rates held steady or dropped after the 1992 Cable Act introduced price regulation.

That is because rates have increased sharply since March 1995, when TCI charged $20.08. Since then the cost has risen at four times the rate of inflation, by more than 24 percent, while inflation has raised prices an average of 6 percent.

Broadcasting and Cable magazine reported in January that TCI raised its rates in 1996 by 13 percent systemwide, more than any national cable television operator.

Roger Harms, general manager of TCI in Cape Girardeau, said inflation contributes to the increase but isn't the most important reason. License fees paid to programming services like ESPN and USA account for most of the price increase, he said.

However, Harms said he did not know how much those channels cost. "I'm not privileged to that information," he said. TCI headquarters in Denver "keeps those things pretty secure."

Michael Maguire, chairman of Cape Girardeau's Cable Television Citizens Committee, said it is hard to say whether the raise is justified without knowing the true costs. "We have to rely on what they tell us," Maguire said.

The Federal Communications Commission regulates the expanded-basic cable rates, based largely on the cost to the cable company.

Maguire said some of the channels that TCI pays for are wholly or partly owned by TCI.

Among the channels on the 32-channel expanded basic, TCI directly owns all or part of The Discovery Channel, BET, the Family Channel, QVC and Fox Sports. In addition, TCI owns part of Time Warner, which owns TNT, TBS, CNN, Headline News and the Cartoon Network, Harms said.

Disney and Viacom own many of the rest.

Harms said that TCI has added two channels to the expanded-basic lineup since 1991. With 30 channels, expanded basic cost 68 cents a channel in 1991. With 33 channels in 1997, the price is 79 cents a channel.

TCI is also raising rates for 16-channel basic service to $11.79 a month from $11.05. And it is eliminating the option of adding Disney, American Movie Classics and USA, instead including those three channels in expanded basic.