Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 24, 1993                   TAG: 9403100006
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TV DISPUTE

It's appropriate that one of the most famous rebel cries in entertainment history came from the movie, "Network."

People have been collectively throwing open their windows and screaming that they're sick and tired of the dispute between cable companies, Cox Cable Roanoke included, and local TV broadcasters. (Roanoke's WSLS recently struck a deal, leaving WDBJ still without cable contracts.)

We don't pretend to understand all the market forces and regulatory rigmarole driving this who-shot-John dispute. And the "spin," coming at us from all directions in advertisements and direct mailings, is making us too dizzy to stand up and take sides.

It looks suspiciously, though, like consumers in some cases could come out the losers. Absent truces negotiated in every media market, cable customers - many of whom subscribe not because they're wild for cubic zirconium rings sold on home-shopping networks, but to get improved reception - will:

Not be able to pick up certain local stations on cable. Some cable companies are threatening to drop local broadcasters, rather than pay (for the first time) to carry their signals.

Lose cable access not only to local TV news and other locally produced shows, but also to the network shows carried by these local network affiliates.

Have to - should they desire to clearly see the local stations - climb up on their roofs and adorn them with unlovely antennas, or plow through tons of junk at yard sales looking for rabbit ears.

Continue - assuming they enjoy having access to cable stations - to pay monthly cable bills. These, of course, if not actually higher, will be effectively higher because cable customers will be paying the same for less.

This, after cable-industry reforms passed by Congress last year promised rollbacks on cable rates, or at least hold-the-line controls?

We're beginning to get the picture.

First, it's hard to regulate prices from Washington. Introducing competition as quickly as possible is the best answer. Second, negotiations are messy when carried out as public-relations brinksmanship.

If the parties involved in this dispute around the country continue to duke it out with little concern for how TV viewers will be affected, they may find some consumers taking their revenge.

They're mad as hell, and won't go hunting for rabbit ears. They already have the device they need, in a button called off.