03-23-1992 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

K' . :' l"-=“ :'. ¥■ rX:^ t: il I:: 1^;rp" i I* ii«-- r ■u Carriage Controversy Hits Stone Wall in Minneapolis By B«mttt Parker nARAGON Cable in Minneapolis has re-r rAiaed to add a fee to its cable bills so the city of Minneapolis can pay for run ning Midirest Sports Channel on its edu cational recess channel That decision spelled the end of an unusual arrangement that the city be gan in November after Paragon and Midwest Sports couldn’t cut their own carriage deal. The two parties have been trying to work out a carriage agreement for two years, bid both seem to have intractable positions: ■ Midwest Sports wants to be carried as a basic networit. ■ Paragon Cable would only offer the network to subscribers on an optional tier or as a premium channel. City councilman Walt Dziedde, who has been championing Midwest Sports’ cause, is ready to *run Paragon Cable out of Minnesota. They don’t deserve to be here.’’ The three largest cities in the state of Minnesota (Bloomington. Minneapolis and SL Paul — all ser^ by Paragon Ca ble) are extremely angry.* Ddeddc said. Their elected officials are madder than hell. I would hate to be a cable company that comes before the councils in any of those three cities.* Regarding the faceoff between Mid west Sports and Paragon Cable, Carol Woid Sindt. who is Minneapolis’ diiector of telecommunicalions, said. *1 don’t see a road around this canyon.* 1^1wmmy For two months, the city carried Mid west Sports on one of its five access chan nels on Paragon Cable. During that time the city sought a way to charge sub scribers and pay Midwest Sports. But the deal ended Feb. 4 when Paragon Cable would hate to be a cable company that comes before the councils In any of those three cities/’ Walt Dziedzic city councilman Minneapolis refused to add a fee to subscribers’ bills that would have gone to the city so it could pay the sports channel. That would be bask cable carriage.* said Debra Cottone. the system’s vice president of programming. "It would be assessing a fee to every customer and forcing it down their throats.’ Insensitivity Dziedzic expressed anger and frustra tion at a Feb. 4 public meeting of the in volved parties. One burr under Dziedzic’s saddle is what he sees as insensitivity on the part of Paragon Cable’s parent. KBI jCOM Inc., based in Houston. *The people in Houston think Min nesota is nothing but a bunch of North erners — they’re going to find out,* Dziedzic said. *l really think they’re just snubbing their nose at the local con sumer. When you have people sitting 1.500 miles away calling the shots, that’s not good.* Cottone. who took the heat from Dziedzic during the public meeting, said the system operates in compliance with franc.bise regulations* adding that she welcomes any Increased scrutiny. During the meeting. Cottone noted that Kevin Cattoor, Midwest Sports’ gen eral manager, said his company wasn’t willing to negotiate for carriage as a non- basic network. That finally confirms publicly the problem we’ve run into in dealing with these people for almost two years,* Cot tone said. *I can’t say that it has ever been a negotiation, 3ret publicly MSC has always said it is willing to negotiate.* While the city sees Paragon Cable as being intractable, the system sees the same in Midwest Sports. “We are held hostage by them be cause in effect they have a monopoly con trol for the next couple of years on Uni versity of Minnesota sports and the (Min nesota) Twins.* Cottone said. Cottone knows some subscribers don't want to pay for Midwest Sports be cause she has more than 35 messages taped to her wall that support the sys tem's position. Tlie one thing that subscribers have made their thoughts known about — louder and clearer than anything else — is that they want more control over their cable bills,* Cottone said. k.