Competing cable coming to T.O.

Competition in the cable television market was opened up last week when the Thousand Oaks City Council gave Verizon California Inc. approval to provide cable services to the city.

At the Sept. 12 council meeting, community members urged city officials to approve the deal in hopes of ensuring better prices and customer service by giving residents a choice of cable companies.

The City Council voted to grant a cable television franchise agreement to Verizon while it still could. Pending state legislation would limit the ability of local governments to design specific agreements with cable companies.

Verizon will honor the agreement with the Thousand Oaks even if the pending legislation becomes law and is willing to provide free basic cable service to city fire stations, facilities operated by the city, Conejo Valley Unified School District and the Conejo Recreation and Park District. The company will pay the city a quarterly fee of 5 percent of gross revenues and will offer public, educational and governmental programming as part of their service.

--Nancy Needham