THE VALLEYS Beyond basic for cable movies

Cable companies contend there's not much demand for the discount option.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
Want to slash your cable television bill and get your favorite movie channel, too?
A little-known federal law is making it possible for some cable subscribers to eliminate channels they never watch and cut their monthly cable bills while adding one or more premium channels.
Known as "tier buy-through," the law requires cable providers that offer a bare-bones minimum service plan to also offer it in combination with premium channels such as Showtime, HBO and Cinemax.
That's a switch for companies that, before the regulation took effect, generally required customers to subscribe to a higher level of service to get the premium channels.
A tier buy-through customer's bill would include the cable provider's lowest base service rate, its monthly charge for one or more premium movie channels, and the cost of renting a digital converter box.
Cable companies have the right to select the channels and services they offer, so some do not include the sort of bare-bones option that would allow customers to save big with tier buy-through.
Local companies
But customers in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys are in luck. Two of this region's largest cable service providers, Adelphia and Time Warner Cable, both offer minimum service plans for less than one-third the cost of their top-selling packages.
Under tier buy-through, a customer adding a premium option such as HBO to base service programs offered by Adelphia or Time Warner would pay a little more than half what most of the companies' subscribers pay.
A Time Warner subscriber who prefers movies to regular TV, for example, would pay $31.60 for a discounted, 12-channel package combined with HBO -- regular subscribers combining the more popular cable plan with the movie channel would pay about twice that, $62.45.
Armstrong cable customers can't save as much because the company doesn't offer a bare-bones service option. Armstrong is the region's third-largest cable provider, based on customer numbers.
Krista White, marketing coordinator for Armstrong, said the company thinks it can keep its rates lower for all its customers by not offering a minimal service plan which would be of interest to only a few.
Low demand
Lou Abraham, general manager of Adelphia's Struthers office, said the company's bare-bones Broadcast service has only a few subscribers, but it works well for people on fixed incomes or who watch very little television.
Broadcast subscribers pay $13.65 a month, but they get just 22 channels compared to the 68 offered under Adelphia's more popular Classic Cable plan. The discounted plan provides local stations and educational and government access channels, but subscribers forgo ESPN, CNN and other popular cable choices.
Few customers subscribe to the Broadcast plan, and even fewer have asked for the tier buy-through option. Abraham said he expects demand to remain low.
"I've been in this business for 20 years, and from what I've seen, the people who want HBO or Cinemax or Showtime are watching more TV than average," he said. "They want more service, not less."
Chris Thomas, government affairs director at Time Warner Cable's Akron office, agreed that more customers are interested in expanding their cable service, not reducing it. Close to half of Time Warner customers have switched to digital service, which adds about $11.50 a month to its standard $42.50 Expanded Basic package and provides more than twice as many television and music channels.
Only "a handful" subscribe to the company's bare-bones Lifeline package, he said, which costs $11.65 a month and provides 12 channels, compared to Expanded Basic's 70 channels.
Law's provisions
Tier buy-through became law with the passing of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, but cable companies were given 10 years to put it into effect.
Time Warner started offering tier buy-through for HBO, Showtime and other premium movie channels well before companies were required to do so in October 2002, Thomas said, but there has been little interest.
He acknowledged that Time Warner hasn't promoted the option. "I'd be shocked if demand picked up," he said. "Maybe if you're a hard-core HBO fan and can't live without 'The Sopranos,' but you don't watch much TV. That doesn't fit many people."
Although Armstrong's pricing doesn't allow for significant savings for customers who request tier buy-through, White said, the company does offer a $4 discount for customers who rent a digital converter box but do not get the extra digital channels that are available.
The box fee is usually $10.95 a month and adds 35 more channels, plus 45 music channels and pay-for-view options. Armstrong's Digital Buy-Through reduces the box rental to $6.95 per month if a customer opts to subscribe to HBO or other movie channels but foregoes the extra channels that usually come with the digital programming.
She said the option is not advertised but is available for customers who ask for a lower-priced choice.
Service areas
Adelphia serves 54,000 households in the region, Abraham said, including Struthers, Lowellville, Coitsville, Poland Township, Hartford, Orangeville, and the New Castle, Sharon and West Middlesex, Pa., areas.
Time Warner has about 100,000 local customers, Thomas said, and services most of the city of Youngstown, about half of Columbiana County and most of Trumbull County.
Armstrong has 45,000 subscribers locally, White said. It services Austintown, Poland, Boardman, Canfield, Campbell, Beaver Township, North Lima, New Springfield, Weathersfield, McDonald and Girard.
vinarsky@vindy.com