ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 15, 1995 TAG: 9512150073
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-15 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
Are cable TV system operators going to make room for another all-news channel?
NBC and Microsoft are hoping so as they announced plans Thursday to launch such a service using the distribution system cobbled together over the past 18 months by NBC's cable network America's Talking.
But getting wide distribution for the news channel could be a problem despite the high profile of the owner - a television powerhouse and the nation's biggest software maker.
Many cable system owners have few open channel spaces available. Some are reluctant to carry networks that offer roughly the same type of service, preferring to offer variety instead.
And several big cable system operators, including the two biggest, Tele-Communications Inc. and Time Warner Inc., own stakes in the company that operates the new channel's principal rival, Cable News Network.
While NBC executives said cable system operators privately reacted positively to their plans for a new news channel, industry executives who responded to calls for comments were noncommittal.
Several system operators said they want to see the new service before deciding to put it on their menu of channel offerings along with CNN.
``The industry is still channel-constrained,'' said Dave Andersen, a spokesman for Atlanta-based Cox Communications which has about 3.2 million cable subscribers.
``Our goal is to provide as much variety for news, information, weather and entertainment as we can in this limited channel environment,'' he said.
Tom Might, chief executive of Post-Newsweek Cable, indicated channel capacity is so tight he may have to make a choice.
``If it is a head-to-head competitor, we would offer one or the other but not both,'' he said. The Phoenix-based system operator, owned by The Washington Post Co., has 520,000 subscribers in 15 states.
Analysts said the big cable companies would not necessarily be smart to stifle competition for CNN. Doing so could invite more regulatory or congressional attention. And if the new service is as unique and popular as NBC says it will be, cable customers may demand it anyway.
Jerry Dominus, the head of the national broadcast division at the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, said the new entrant ``will liven up the marketplace.''
``This won't necessarily hurt CNN,'' he said. ``I think total news viewership will expand,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB