05-28-1991 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINE •iV. Lessons in P.R.: How One System Bumped the Senate ^ HANNEL Shiftino is always treach- werous territory, but it could have been especially touchy for the Jones Intercable Inc. system in Anne Arun del County. Md.. which found itself forced to move C-SPAN II Uiis month to return USA Network to its ‘-ystem lineup. Snce the system is in Washing ton. D.C.’s backyard, general manager Gary Massaglia took care to speak with Rep. Thomas McMillen (D-Md.), a member of the House Tdecmmuni- cations and Finance Subcommittee, b^ fore bumping C- SPAN II from Chan nel 40 to Channel 4S, which will de prive half of the sys tem’s subscribers of C-SPAN’s Senate coverage until a sys tem upgrade is com pleted next year. McMillen apparently had no obje^ons to the absence of the Senate on the system. Massaglia then wrote to Sens. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) to give them the news. Public relations “never hurts.’ Ma^aglia said. “A letter is cheap.’ ABOUT THAT BILLING: Justice moves slowly, but never slower than bttt Tuesday uiten Group W and Dow Jones were set to press their appeal in (he battle over Financial News Net work. Before judge Morris Lasker opened the proceedings, he spent an hour swearing in about 40 apple cheeked new young lawyers. Standing behind them in the spectator section was a stark contrast: The dozen or so high priced attorneys involved in the FNN case, ndgeting. tapping fingers on briefcases, glancing at the ceiling, then their shoes, then the ceiling again. "Like football players standing through an hour-long ^ar Spangled Banner before a big game." quipped one courtroom observer. NATIONAL CABLE WHAT7: Pizza Hut again is the corporate sponsor of Natio^ Cable Month. But cable exec utives on a recent visit to a suburban Denver Pizza Hut found the assistant manager there clueless as to the cable programming promoted at the restau rant in the form of point of purchase displays and tray covers. MAKING ROOM To add USA Network, channel-shuffling: these Jones Intercable systems had to do some quick Market Date added Channel What USA Roplacoo Browofd County, Fla*4/8 21 VH-l (moved to ch. 48) Juneau. Wis.5/1 14 Weather Channel (moving to channel 28 in place of The Movie Channel) Oxnard, Calif.4/30 18 Country Music Television Albuquerque. N.M.4/1 6 A&E Network (moved to channel 18; moved to channel 33. replacing local advertising channel) Indopondence, Mo. Swum; CsbW Wo«M 4/10 25 Financial News Network Is Squeezing USA Onto Channel Lineups By Kathy Clayton ^INCE Atrii. 1. Jones Inirrc.nbic quietly whas been returning USA Network to system lineups as pari of Ihe selllemenl of the lawsuit Ihe cable network had brought against Jones in 1988. Among the channels being shifted to make room for USA arc The Weather Channel. MTV. VH-I. Arts A Knlertain- ment Network and American Movie Clas sics. according to an informal Cable World survey of 16 Jones systems last week. Six of the 16 Jones systems con tacted dropped or will drop cable or broadcast TV channels in order to wedge USA Network back onto their lineups. Tlie suit charged that Jones had breached an affiliation contract with USA when the cable company dropped the MCA Inc./Paramount Communications Inc.-ovmed network from all of Jones’ sys tems In 1988. Under Ihe settlement. Jones paid USA $6.2 million, according to the company’s third quarter report. ITte informal survey by Cable World of Jones Intercable systems found: ■ One system added USA to the VHF band, a range highly desired by program mers for the supposed ratings lift it pro- vi^. ■ Eight systems placet! USA on either Channels 24. 25 or 26. Two systems have slotted space on Channel 21 and another five systems placed the network between Channels 14 and 19. 'The wholesale addition of USA to all systems operated by the nation’s ninlh- CABLE WORLD / April 22. 1991 largest MSO illustrates how many sys tems are hard-pressed to allot space for new channels without dropping or shift ing others. Tlie systems that dropped or ^11 drop a network to make room for USA included Janesville, Wis., which plans to launch USA June 1 and will drop one of two Mil waukee distant broadcast signals; Juneau. Wis.. which dropped The Mow Channel; Albuquerque. N. M., which switched out a local advertising channel: Myrtle Beach. Ore., which dropped WWOR; Indepen dence. Mo., which dropped Financial News Network: and Oxnard. CaKf.. which dropped Country Music Television. “* Jones’ system in Buffalo. Minn., merged two community billboard chan nels into one channel to make room for the basic service. " Of the networks moved around to make room for USA, Tlie Weather Chan nel was moved most often. *rhree systems shifted it to higher channel poskhma. Oth er channels realigned included VH-I, MTV, Arts A Entertainment Network. The Jukebox Network. The Nashville Net work and American Movie Classin — all moved to higher channel positions. In South Sioui, City. Neb., C-SPAN I waa moved from Channel 24 to Channel 38; and in Anne Arundel County. Md.. C-SPAN II was shifted up to Channel 40. a channel which only half of the system’s subscribers can receive at this time. Of the 16 operations surveyed, only Jones’ system In Albuquerque. N.M.. placed USA on the VHF band.