Adult programming offer to be limited, cable official says

Contrary to what the Carroll commissioners were told in a report Tuesday, Adelphia Cable will not deliver adult programming to its digital television customers unless customers order it, the county's cable coordinator said yesterday.

The company will begin offering adult programming next month, but only to those customers who request the programming and pay extra for it, said Carol Shawver, administrator for Carroll's cable regulatory commission. Digital customers who want the programming but want to block it from children will be able to do so using call-in codes.

Adelphia has mailed brochures to its customers explaining the new services but said in a letter to the county that it would not market the adult programming.

On Tuesday, county chief of staff Steven D. Powell mistakenly told the commissioners that Adelphia would be offering adult programming to all digital customers. The commissioners told him to prepare a letter to Adelphia asking for an explanation of why the company planned to provide the programming whether people wanted it or not.

Adelphia could be fined over data needed for audit

The county's cable regulatory commission plans to begin fining Adelphia in 60 days unless the company cooperates more fully with a commission audit of franchise fee payments, Shawver wrote in a letter Monday to Adelphia officials.

According to the letter, the cable commission first requested the financial documents in May and has not received all of the data needed for the review. The tardy and incomplete response violates Adelphia's contract agreement, the cable coordinator wrote.

The fines would run $100 a day, Shawver wrote. Adelphia officials did not respond to calls seeking comment on the letter.