Students living off campus face many choices, but when choosing a cable provider in Athens, there's only one option: Time Warner Cable.
However, Time Warner's franchise agreement with the city ' which allows the company to use the city's cable lines and other infrastructure to deliver cable service ' is nonexclusive.
The city could enter into a franchise agreement with another provider, but it wouldn't make economic sense because one cable line can service the same area more cheaply than two, said Mark Ganley, general manager of Adelphia, a cable provider outside of Athens.
DIRECTV and DISH Network are satellite companies that offer similar services to Athens residents, but those companies are not subject to franchise agreements because they do not have any infrastructure within the city.
DIRECTV's smallest package provides one TV with more than 155 channels for about $45 a month. DISH Network provides 80 channels to two TVs for about $35 a month and standard Time Warner Cable offers 75 channels to two TVs for about $45 a month, plus a $10 installation fee.
Athens has what Time Warner Cable government relations manager Rick Carfagna called a cable enabling ordinance
a set of rules and regulations that applies to all cable providers. The cable providers also are required to get a cable franchise agreement that outlines details of the agreement between the city and a specific company.
As part of the agreement that Time Warner Cable has with Athens, the company is obligated to give 5 percent of its profits to the city as a franchise fee. That percentage ' the maximum allowed by federal law ' is passed on as a cost to customers, Carfagna said.
Also under the agreement, the company provides the city with four channels, two that are operated by Ohio University and two that are city-run.
OU's two channels are WOUB (channel 2) and Educational Access (channel 25).
The other two channels supervised by the city are Public Access (channel 23) and the Government Access (channel 15). Public Access is funded directly from a portion of the franchise fee. Government Access receives its funding from the city's general fund.
Public Access is run off-site, and the Government Access channel is run out of the City Building.
The franchise fee provided Athens with about $85,000 last year, said city Auditor Kathy Hecht. That amount was up from about $75,000 in 2004.
The cable system passes nearly all of the residences within Athens' city limits.
Of the homes that have the opportunity I would guess that about two-thirds of the houses are getting some services from us whether it's cable television
high-speed Internet or digital phone
Carfagna said.
The cable is fed through fiber transport from Columbus to Athens, but Carfagna said he wasn't sure whether the long distance would affect signal strength.
One Time Warner Cable and Internet subscriber, senior Rose Johnson of West Union Street, said she thought that the service was sufficient.
It's gone out a couple of times this year
and we don't have any of the good movie channels like they get in the dorms
Johnson said.
Another cable and Internet subscriber, junior Brian Clutter of North Congress Street, received a letter of apology for service trouble and a discount on optional features in response to reporting occasional outages.
We were happy about that
Clutter said.
17
Archives
