Costa Mesa : Cable TV Service Due To Begin in Northeast

Residents of northeast Costa Mesa will be able to place orders for cable television service beginning today, and can receive installation within the next few weeks, according to John Merritt, regional manager of Copley/Colony Cablevision Inc., the city’s cable franchisee.

Approximately 5,000 homes in the area bordered by Harbor Boulevard, Tustin Avenue, the San Diego Freeway and Orange Coast College will be able to receive the basic service, about 40 channels, for $8.95 monthly.

Optional services, such as Home Box Office and the Disney Channel, will cost $8.95 monthly each, Merritt said.

He said installation will be available in the area from east of the 55 Freeway to Newport Beach at the end of this month, and cable service is expected to be available to the rest of the city by next February.

Costa Mesa granted the franchise to Copley/Colony in March, 1984, and will receive 5% of the company’s gross revenues, city communications director Vincent Whelan said. The city is one of the last in Orange County to get a cable franchise.

Whelan said city officials “were waiting for the technology. Many (other cities) got into trouble with franchises and what they could produce. We were going to ask for things up front.” He added that the city has not been flooded with requests for cable, and said, “People can get (network reception) with a rooftop antenna pretty good.”

Merritt said the company predicts “50% penetration” into the homes of the city’s 87,000 people in the first few months it is available, and eventually “upwards of 60%.”

Most customers, Merritt predicted, will pay $29.95 for a package of basic service and three optional channels. He said the “most popular” combination is Home Box Office with Disney Channel and Bravo.

Cable will be laid under a third of the city and strung on utility poles elsewhere. Merritt estimated construction costs at $20 million, but said the company plans to recoup those costs in seven or eight years.

In two years, residents may be able to do shopping and banking through home computers linked to the cable service, Merritt said. “There probably isn’t a lot of interest (from Costa Mesa merchants), although we have the capability to do it.”