COMCAST FINDS A FOE IN PARK CITY

BY K. C. NEEL

Eric Hutchins' plan to launch a local information station on a leased access channel in Park City, Utah, has hit a formidable stumbling block ? cable consolidation.

After months of negotiating with Comcast for carriage of his Park City Information Channel, Hutchins thought he had a deal; meanwhile, he was creating programming and lining up advertisers for a planned July 2003 launch. Hutchins would pay Comcast $5,000 a month for the channel. At the proverbial 11th hour, Comcast told him the company was consolidating its head-ends, and PCIC would be seen in the entire DMA, meaning his cost for the leased access would instead be $55,000 a month.

Hutchins and his attorney, Matthew Liebowitz of Liebowitz & Associates, have filed a petition with the FCC asking it to force Comcast to let PCIC have a leased access channel in the Park City area with rates based on that population alone.

?By virtue of Comcast's consolidated cable operation serving the entire Salt Lake City area,? Liebowitz states in his petition, ?leased access to Park City has been lost in contravention of a statutory right imposed by Congress.?

Comcast declined to discuss details about the case, but company spokesperson Cindy Parsons says, ?I can assure you we comply with all FCC leased access regulations, and we will address Mr. Hutchins' concerns with the FCC.?

Liebowitz says it's ironic that Comcast is preventing local programming from being televised on its systems at a time when operators are playing up their advantage over DBS in providing local programming.

?People in Salt Lake City have no interest in the information this channel is going to have about Park City,? Liebowitz says. ?It's the ultimate form of local programming.?

Liebowitz claims in his petition that Comcast said it can't technically differentiate the local leased access channels in each of its franchise areas. But outside engineers as well as those from Comcast have admitted that a $20,000 piece of equipment would enable PCIC to deliver its signal to Park City Comcast customers, he notes. Hutchins says he was even willing to buy the equipment and let Comcast use it free of charge.

Moreover, Comcast has an advertising insertion zoning system that lets advertisers target their ads specifically to Park City residents.

?Thus,? Liebowitz says, ?when it is in Comcast's economic self-interest, i.e., the sale of advertising, the cable company not only has the technology, but the ability to provide service in designated geographic areas, as opposed to requiring advertisers to place advertisements throughout the system.?

And that means, he says, that Comcast is giving its advertisers preferential treatment for its own commercial gain while denying access to leased access providers such as PCIC who have a statutory right to the channels as part of the 1992 Cable Act.

?I did everything by the book, and then all of a sudden after we had come to an agreement but hadn't signed on the dotted line,? Hutchins says, ?the regional sales manager tells me Comcast is consolidating its head-ends and I'd have to buy the entire DMA. Yet the [Park City] franchise says leased access channels are specifically for that area. Why would the sales manager deal with this if it didn't have something to do with advertising revenue??

Comcast has until next week to reply to the petition; Liebowitz can then make a rebuttal. At that point the petition will be in the hands of the FCC, he says. ?It might take awhile, but it's not going to languish at the FCC like another similar petition has for the past two years because I'm not going to let it. The leased access guys have a lot of legitimate issues, but they aren't organized and they don't have a lot money to spend. But that doesn't mean they should be pushed around and squeezed out of business.?