Cable rates are expected to rise soon, but Cablevision's new manager Jeremy Elmas said he first wants to ensure a quality viewing experience as well.

Mr. Elmas revealed the company's plans in an interview with The Royal Gazette on Friday, elaborating on the embattled company's efforts to improve customer satisfaction.

Recently Cablevision printed a customer survey in The Royal Gazette , asked Island residents what channels they watch and which channels they would like to see added to the current line up of 54.

Customers were asked to rate services such as bill-paying convenience, customer service, technician service, channel reception, signal reliability, and available channels.

The survey also asked if customers were willing to pay for 30 channels of 24-hour commercial free music.

Customers, as well as non customers, were eligible to fill in the survey, making them eligible to win a 37-inch television.

Recent letters to the Editor have criticised the dropping of some channels, namely ABC affiliate WXYZ, KTLA, Nickelodeon, Much Music and VH1.

A Spanish version of the Discovery channel also frustrated customers, as has the recent audio-synch delays on HBO, which one letter writer said: "reminds me of the old great Chinese Kung-fu movies of the 60's and 70's. The only problem is that we are now in the year 2001.'' Speedvision and Fox Sports Network are two sports channels that have been added to the line up, as well as the National Geographic channel.

Cablevision came under new management in January after executive manager Carl Musson stepped down from his post in December after just six months.

WestStar Cable of the Cayman Islands became the new co-owners after buying out shares from long-time US-based shareholder McDonald Consulting in January.

Mr. Elmas said Cablevision lost ABC's WXYZ (on channel 13) because the network had an exclusive contract with the Bermuda Broadcasting Company (BBC), and Cablevision had been advised to discontinue the channel or face legal action.

As far as Nickelodeon and the music channels were concerned, these were dropped before Mr. Elmas and Weststar took charge.

A voice synchronisation problem with movie channel, HBO was a result of faulty equipment sent to Cablevision, and has since been rectified.

With regards to an expanded menu of channels, Mr. Elmas said the current infrastructure limits the total channel carrying load to about 60 channels.

Cablevision uses 54 of these channels and is reserving the last six until data from the survey had been tabulated.

The remaining channels would then be filled with those most popular in the survey.