01-27-1992 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

IVlinneapolis Carries Sports Net on Local Access Channe By R. THOMAS UMSTEAD ■ ■ INNEAPOLIS — The City Council IlN here has found a unique way to at I Vi least temporarily solve a biner car* riage dispute between Midwest SponsChan* nel and Paragon Cable of Minneapolis: The city is distributing the service on its allocated local access channel. While Midwest SC runs on Paragon, the council has forced both parties to negotiate a way to solve their ongoing dispute over whether the legionai sports service should be offered as a pay or basic service. In an attempt to spur talks between the two parties, the city of Minneapolis pro grammed Midwest SC on its dedicated local access channel last month, said Minneapolis City Councilman Walt its franchise agreement with Paragon, the ac cess channel can cablccasi a basic sen ice on its access channel if Paragon is not currently offering the service. The city is carrying the scr\ icc without having to pay a license fee to Midwest SC. “We found out that if there is a scrv icc oat there and the cable service is not carry ing it, we have the right to carry it on local access,*^ Dziedzic said. Midwest SC is offered as a basic serv ice on the local access channel to approximately 60.000 subscribers — all in Minneapolis — of Paragon's 1 10.000-subscriber base, said Kevin Cattoor, vice president and general manager of Midwest SC. Overall, the net work has 750,000 basic subscribers. P?irrl7ir in the dispute after not being able to w atch on tele vision his son play on the University of Min nesota hockey team. “Why can I go to Wyoming and get it, yet not be able to in my own backyard?*’ he asked. The city will continue to carry the pro gramming on the local access ch nnci through January, Dzicdzic said. Bur Canoor said that if a deal with cither Paragon or the city — which could conceivably pay MSC for its programming and keep ir on the local access channel — is not reacned by Ian 7, he v^ill pull the service fn rn the access chan nel. “1 will continue to negotiate, but it doesn’t make sense to keep the channel on.” he said Driedzic said he would rather not see liic ciry pay for the service. “We arrn ’i going lo spend any lax dollars lo do that,** he said Another option would he for the cable com- pa.ny to add an extra 50 cents lo its basic charge for the service, Cattoor said. The charge would be itemized on subscribers ca ble bills. Debra Coilonc. vice president of program ming and public affairs for Paragon, said the system would not agree to such a deal. ’The bottom line is that it is our bill,’’ she said, ”lf they (the city) want to contract with MSC, they can do so, but they can ’t pul a surcharge on our billing system.” U Ruti«« Vi A RATe hikb The original dispute steins from Paragon' insistence that the regional sports servici which costs around 45 to 50 cents per sUb scriber per month and carries such locr sports properties as Minnesota Twins base ball and University of Minnesota coUeg games, be carried as a pay service. Conon said. But Cattoor said that economically, i would be impossible for the network to b carried as a premium service. “I can't cve begin to think of discretionary carriage." h said, adding that all of the network's affili ation agrceme.tts are for basic carriage. He pointed out that one Minnesota systcr recently offered Midwest SC as a premiur service "on a test basis" and generated onl a 10 percent penetration rate. The two panics hadn't talked "seriously for months belore the City Council passc' a resolution last month urging tlic two side to resume talks. Dziedzic s.iid. Cottone said the two parties are conduct ing "cordial" discussions, but are still fun damentally split on how to offer the channe^ Dziedzic blamed both companies for th situation. "Both the cable company and th regional sports network are thumbing thei noses at the cable viewer." he said. "PcopI are very frustrated that they can't reach a- agreement.'V