Cox seeks cable TV rate hike

Thursday, Dec. 3, 1998 | 11:37 a.m.

Cox Communications of Las Vegas plans to raise cable television rates for its 310,000 subscribers.

Clark County received notice of the proposed 5.1 percent increase Wednesday. If approved, customers would see their rates go up about 53 cents a month, from $9.70 to $10.23 for basic service, Channels 1-17; or $27.51 to $28.04 for the "preferred" package of Channels 1-49.

Basic stations include the major network affiliates, two Spanish networks, government access, the Weather Channel and superstations from Chicago and Atlanta. The preferred package offers stations like CNN, ESPN, USA, the Family Channel, Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel.

Clark County and local municipalities are the franchising authorities for the cable system, but the ultimate decision-maker on rate increases is the Federal Communications Commission.

Roma Haynes, senior management analyst for Clark County's franchise services division, said the FCC sets a rate cap that cable companies can't exceed. The Cox proposal is within the rate cap.

Franchising authorities and private citizens can file complaints on rates with the FCC. Haynes said the county will analyze the rate increase proposal and gauge public comment before determining whether it would file a complaint with the federal agency.

Cox Vice President Steve Schorr said the rate increase is driven by higher programming costs from the various networks.

"It's important to note that none of the increase is tied in any way to money spent (by Cox) to buy the system," Schorr said. "It's a promise that was made when the system was bought by Cox and we're keeping it."

Schorr said it's the lowest rate increase cable operators have requested in six years.

No programming changes are on the horizon for cable viewers and Schorr said the company is concentrating on bringing digital television upgrades to the cable system.

A large portion of that is in an $85 million system upgrade scheduled to be completed by Jan. 1, 2000. Schorr said the upgrade is about 60 percent complete.

Cox maintains about 4,500 miles of fiber and cable in Southern Nevada. The system upgrade is replacing most of its coaxial cable with higher capacity fiber optic cable.

The rate increase is expected to take effect March 1 if the FCC doesn't intervene. The Cox filing doesn't list a specific date, but the company's predecessors have been on an annual renewal schedule for that date.

If approved, it would be the fourth cable television rate increase in four years. The cost for basic service increased $1.36 a month earlier this year, $1.09 a month in 1997 and $1.60 a month in early 1996.

Cox acquired the city's dominant cable television operation from Prime Cable and the Greenspun family of Las Vegas earlier this year for $1.33 billion. The family, which kept a 20 percent interest, also owns the Las Vegas Sun, associated publications and the real estate development concern American Nevada Corp. The family's 33 percent partnership in the Las Vegas 1 cable news channel was a part of the sale to Cox.