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M/CLOUDY Temp: 36 °F Wind: NNW at 4 mph Sunday, December 8, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend November 23, 2002 New rule allows a cheaper option for HBO By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune Both Charter Communications and Ashland Fiber Network say they will comply with a new federal rule that gives consumers a cheaper way to get premium channels such as HBO, although neither has exactly gone out of its way to publicize the lower-cost options. The new rule, a provision of the Cable Act of 1992 that has now kicked in, says that cable operators can no longer require subscribers to buy upgraded or expanded programming packages in order to get channels such as HBO and Starz or to receive pay-per-view programs. A staffer who answered the phone at the city of Ashland-owned AFN at first said customers did have to buy an expanded package to get HBO, but cable manager Michael Ainsworth later said that was no longer the case. "If someone calls and says, ‘I want Tier One (basic cable service at $7 per month) and I want HBO,’ we’ll do it," Ainsworth said. "We didn’t used to do it," he added. In the past year, nobody has asked for such service, he added. He acknowledged that most people probably don’t realize it’s available. Charter says it was willing and ready to comply with the rule. "If you have the most basic service and the (digital receiver) box, you have access to pay-per-view," said Gary McDonald, general manager of Charter’s Medford office. "What the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) said was, the operator can’t require the customer to take both basic levels before they can get a digital box. We’ve long offered that. It didn’t change it a bit." While the new regulation gives cable customers the right to get premium channels without buying channels they don’t want, customers do have to buy basic cable service to get anything. And a digital receiver is required for premium channels and pay-per-view because they are digital signals. The box costs $6.95 a month at Charter and $5.95 month at AFN. Charter’s basic service in Medford and most of Jackson County costs $14.47 a month, including the franchise fee the company pays the city. In both cases, subscribers who don’t want to buy a bunch of stations they don’t want in an expanded package can save money by in effect buying a la carte. A Charter rate card says that a package called "Digital Advantage" includes expanded basic and pay-per-view for $44.95. But a customer with basic cable, a digital box and HBO would pay about $8 less per month than a "Digital Advantage" subscriber and still have pay-per-view capability. Customers in some markets have been forced to buy channels they didn’t want in order to get the ones they did want. In New York City, for example, HBO was packaged with 20 other channels at a cost of about $25. Premium channels such as HBO and Showtime are owned by media conglomerates. AOL Time Warner, which owns HBO, also owns CNN, TNT, TBS and Court TV. In some markets, consumers have been forced to buy those channels if they want HBO. The new rule also provides loopholes for cable companies facing competition, but neither Charter nor AFN intends to apply for an exemption. "We try to be not a big corporate mentality," said Ainsworth, adding that he used to work for AOL Time Warner. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S