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Spectrum TV lays off 55 employees in Minneapolis

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Spectrum TV lays off 55 employees es in Minneapolis do something drastic. "Concurrently the company is exploring other alternatives, including sale or conversion to independent broadcasting station and intends to act quickly . ..." the report said. Paul Beckelheimer, vice president of operations for HEN, said yesterday that the layoffs were simply "an adjustment" of Spectrum's employment levels, and that "we intend to be part of the business up there for quite awhile." He said that HEN has considered transferring its programming to Oak because it would increase the ability to buy programming. He would not say if a decision has been made. United, through HEN, owns two other pay TV operations, in Cincinnati and in Chicago. Minneapolis is its By Josephine Marcotty and Randall Mikkelsen Staff Writers Despite its relative strength in the pay TV industry, Spectrum in Minneapolis off about 55 employees Friday in a cost-cutting move. An analyst who follows the industry predicted that Spectrum, which broadcasts movies and local sports programs via a scrambled signal on Channel 3, would soon announce that its programming would be taken over by the giant in the subscription TV company, Oak Industries, Inc. And United Cable Television Corp., the majority owner of Spectrum's parent company, Home Entertainment Network, Inc. (HEN) in Cincinnati, confirmed in its most recent quarterly report that it probably will scribing to the sports service, said in Brad Guck, one installer who did not lose his job this week. "We're disconnecting more subscribers than we're installing," he said. Installer Ron Paasch said he doesn't blame the local company for his layoff. Company officials made no promises of job security when they hired him, and they were just carrying out layoff orders from the parent company, he said. "You can't really hold anything against them; they were as fair with us as they could possibly be," he said. most successful, with 27,000 subscribers, but even so its subscription level is not meeting projections. That is especially true of its Spectrum Sports package, which features home games of the Minnesota Twins and North Stars. Subscribers to Spectrum can buy either the movie package or the sports pacakge for $19.95 a month. An additional package of late-night R-rated movies is available for another $10. However, subscription TV - or STV - is struggling to survive nationwide. In April, Oak Industries shut down two of its operations (Dallas and Phoenix), cutting almost 50,000 subscribers. United Cable reported a $2.9 million loss in the third quarter of fiscal 1983 on its three STV operations, compared with $1.6 million in the second quarter, and $1.5 million the first quarter. Alan Cole-Ford, an analyst with Paul Kagan Associates, Inc., said switching the programming to Oak would be a simple solution for United. "It will help shift the cost burden (to Oak), and would be an initial step toward a strengthening of the bonds between Oak and Spectrum, which may represent the only bridges out of STV (for United)," he said. Employees who lost their jobs this week confirmed the decline in business. They were hired last August, when Spectrum started service. At first, the installers worked up 12 hours a day. But business began to slow down after the North Stars season ended and peopie stopped sub- to Ron Paasch
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