The Michigan Daily-Friday, August 3, 1979-Page 7
b
Tentative cable T V sale accord may be near
BY JOHN GOYER
A tentative agreement to sell Ann Arbor's finan-
cially-troubled cable television system could be
reached by next week, according to a consultant hired
by the system's current owners.
Representatives of the Denver-based Daniels and
Associates, Inc., prospective buyer of the cable
system, met yesterday with Ann Arbor Mayor Louis
Belcher, City Cablecasting Commission Chairman
Mark Ouimet, and representatives of Ann Arbor
Cablevision, which now owns the system, according-to
William Cullens, consultant for a management firm for
Ann Arbor Cablevision. Cullens said he also par-
ticipated in the negotiations.
THE NEXT STEP in the purchase process, Cullen
added, would be to secure the Cablecasting Com-
mission's approval of a franchise agreement with the
prospective buyer, "who looks like it will be Daniels
and Associates.'
The commission then would recommend to City in back taxes which Ann Arbor Cablevision will owe the
Council members whether they should approve the city by the end of the summer.
franchise agreement, a step which could be completed
as early as this month, Cullen said. REPRESENTATIVES OF Daniels and Associates
could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Cullen also said Daniels and Associates would have
to show City Council members evidence of its financial
well-being. Asked if the company would have any The terms of the agreement under negotiation,
problems proving financial soundness, Cullen replied, Cullen said, follow the conditions included in the city's
"absolutely none." newly revised ordinance regulating cable TV.
ANN ARBOR Cablevision, reportedly $4.5 million in
debt, as in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings in Los
Angeles.
If the council approves an agreement, the sale of the
cable system would not be closed until November or
December, according to Charlene Ladd of the
Cablecasting Commission.
He said Daniels and Associates, Inc. had made an of-
fer to Ann Arbor Cablevision "in excess of $5 million."
The offer includes picking up the tab for about $332,000
The ordinance requires a company purchasing the
system to provide two public access channels, to be ex-
panded to four channels after two years of operation.
That stipulation was mentioned two weeks ago as a
possible obstacle to a purchase offer from John
Muraglia of Daniels and Associates.
He said two weeks ago that his company had not yet
had the chance to review the revised ordinance,
because the city attorney's office had not yet produced
a certified copy of the ordinance.
Cullen said yesterday the ordinance was still
unavailable.
Economy
worse than
expected,
gov't says
WASHINGTON (AP) - Less than
three weeks after it predicted a mild
recession, the Carter administration
may be about to concede that a more
serious downturn is in prospect both
this year and next.
A task force of administration
economists says in a fresh assessment
of the economy that unemployment
probably will rise to 8.2 per cent next
year, rather than the 6.9 per cent
forecast just last July 12, a difference of
about 1.3 million jobs.
The assessment also concludes that
the decline in economic output will
amount to 1.4 per cent this year, down
from the 0.5 per cent administration
forecast.
AND IT says inflation will be slightly
worse, with consumer prices rising 11
per cent this year instead of the 10.6 per
cent increase projected by the ad-
ministration on July 12.
However, the new figures are not of-
ficial forecasts. They are part of an in-
ternal working paper prepared by a
task force of economists.
While there was one report that they
were prepared only in the past few
days, an administration .source said
they were known prior to the July 12
forecasts. He said it was a "good
question" why the administration put
out the earlier, more optimistic num-
bers, knowing the outlook might be con-
siderably more pessimistic.
A NUMBER of things have happened
to worsen the economic outlook in
recent months. Chief among these is the
60 per cent increase in the price of
world oil so far this year. But recent ac-
tions by the Federal ReservehBoard to
push up interest rates also have dim-
med the outlook.
The latest assessment tends to
narrow what could be an embarrassing
difference between the ad-
ministration's July 12 official forecast
and' a forecast issued by the Federal
Reserve Board just a few days later.
The board said unemployment could
rise to 8.25 per cent by the end of next
year and that economic- output could
drop as much as two per cent this year,
with inflation also being slightly worse
than theadmirnistration forecast: ,
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