Posted on: Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Oceanic to issue cable refund

By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer

Oceanic Time Warner Cable will refund O'ahu cable subscribers $1.92 each on a future cable bill for over-collections during a seven-year period between 1995 to 2002. Overall, the company owes subscribers $483,759 in over-collected franchise fees, according to an announcement yesterday by the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

That equates to about 27 cents per year in over-charges for each customer affected.

The DCCA initiated the review as part of its mission to ensure accuracy in the cable TV franchise fee process, said department spokeswoman Christine Hirasa. Time Warner has since changed its accounting practices to ensure greater accuracy, the department said.

The refunds will go only to current cable subscribers.

"While we would have liked to see all previous subscribers receive a refund as well, the logistics of going back to locate all eligible parties would be extremely difficult and impractical," Hirasa said in an e-mailed statement.

The refunds will go to all customers as of April 29 and should be completed by June 2. Similar refunds for Neighbor Island cable subscribers are planned.

The over-collections resulted from errors in annual estimates of subscribers, said Allan Pollock, a spokesman for Oceanic Time Warner Cable. Oceanic collects fees for Olelo Community Television, PBS Hawaii and the DCCA based on estimates done at the beginning of each year. Oceanic under-collected during some of the seven years in question and over-collected in others depending on the actual number of subscribers, Pollock said.

Oceanic does not benefit financially from any over-collections, he said.

"We just collect certain taxes," Pollock said. "Whether we under-estimate or over-estimate it doesn't change how well we do to our shareholders."

Reach Sean Hao at 525-8093 or shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.