Mediacom expands channels, reach

Mediacom has raised its rates, but it's also added six new channels and laid 15 miles of new cable.

Additionally, its advertising division, OnMedia, has ex-panded its advertising reach from four counties into 10.

The cost of expanded basic cable rose an additional $4.95 per month as of Feb. 1, but ex-panded basic subscribers now receive six new channels: Home & Garden Television, The His-tory Channel, TV Land, The Food Channel, The Soap Net-work and The Inspirational Net-work.

That gives those subscribers a total of 63 channels for $36.95 per month, or 59 cents per channel.

The increase, which comes just eight months after Media-com purchased the Springfield market from AT&T, is partly to recoup the money the company has recently invested in the area, said Arnold Cool, Mediacom's regional vice president and Springfield general manager.

"Mediacom has built 15 miles of cable since we got here in July and prior to that AT&T had not spent any capital to do that kind of development," he said.

Cool said that installation of cable lines cost an average of $17,000 per mile, which means Mediacom has invested approximately $250,000.

Rates in Missouri

In comparison, Cool said Branson's Cox Cable offers 38 channels at $28.95 for 76 cents per channel; Charter Cable in Osage Beach offers 38 channels at $41.95 for $1.10 per channel one of the higher rates in the state; Rolla's Fidelity Cable gives 60 channels at 55 cents each; and Cable American in Republic is paid 62 cents per channel for 56 channels.

"We're not ashamed of our price points because we feel like we're within the range of fair pricing throughout southwest Missouri," he said.

The average in Missouri, he added, is $35.61 per month, and its average channel capacity is 55. That means Media-com is 10 cents below the average cost per channel, which is 69 cents each.

Nixa and Ozark are serviced by Clas-sic Cable, which recently filed for bankruptcy. Cool said once the courts handle its case, Mediacom will look into buying that area also.

Advertising reach

Mediacom's advertising division, On-Media, is also undergoing some expansion. Ads placed on one of Mediacom's cable stations now reach into 10 counties, as of Feb. 1. Previously, ads were broadcast into four counties.

"Where we think that's good for Springfield is that these outlying areas that have not had access to ad insertions now have that capability for local businesses here," Cool said.

The additional counties represent a to-tal of 8,800 households reached, according to Mary Chalender, local sales manager for OnMedia. She said total households reached is now 84,000.

"That's a huge change for us in the cable market in Springfield," OnMedia Account Representative Judy Fick said.

The new area stretches from Golden City and Lockwood to the west, Mans-field and Cabool to the east, Willard to the north and Forsyth and Kimberling City to the south. Counties within reach now are Cedar, Christian, Dade, Doug-las, Greene, Stone, Taney, Texas, Webster and Wright.

"When AT&T put (its) small- to mid-sized markets on the block ... it was a logical buy for Mediacom since they owned so many surrounding (areas)," Chalender said. "And we're really their niche small- to medium-sized markets, whereas AT&T's niche is big markets."

Post-purchase issues

Mediacom's $175 million purchase of the Springfield franchise, which was finalized last June, was surrounded by much debate about the fate of the more than 60 union employees formerly em-ployed by AT&T.

Those employees signed a new contract with AT&T just prior to the sale and wondered if the new ownership would respect the contract.

Cool said Mediacom kept all former AT&T employees and it is his understanding that those employees are receiving the pay rate and benefits according to the contract signed with AT&T.

Cool said Mediacom promised the city that all employees would be retained. "During the transfer negotiations, that was one of the things that they were asking us to acknowledge the union contract and one of their concerns was that we would come in and lay employees off," he said. "We didn't lay anybody off; we kept our word."

But "we are still in negotiations with the union," he said. Mediacom has 104 employees locally.

Online services

Further changes are set for the end of February when Mediacom's online service will transition from its third-party carrier Excite@Home to a new service called Mediacom Online. The new high-speed Internet service will be offered after Feb. 28, while service for existing Excite@ Home customers will stop Feb. 8.

"We're going to take that period of time to transition our existing customers over to this new service," Cool said.

Mediacom has around 6,000 Internet users in Springfield, he added.