COUCH POTATOES REJOICE\Colorado-based cable provider to take in(ter)activity to new level\in Santa Clarita.

Byline: James J. Rodriguez Daily News Staff Writer

You're sitting at home watching your TV when you suddenly realize you're hungry.

With the click of your cable TV remote, you pull up a list of Santa Clarita Valley restaurants on your TV and browse through the various menus. Bon appetit.

Dinner decided, you move on to a screen that shows what movies are playing at the local theaters. You buy your tickets without leaving the comfort of your cozy couch.

Sound like a dawdler's paradise? Maybe not.

The Colorado-based company that just bought Continental Cablevision Inc. is hoping to bring those services to cable subscribers in parts of the Santa Clarita and San Fernando Valleys and Los Angeles over the next two years.

Last week, officials with U.S. West Media Group, owned by U.S. West Inc., announced the company had purchased Continental Cablevision with plans on taking couch potatoes for a ride along the Information Superhighway.

Along with the $10.8 billion deal, U.S. West Media Group officials promised to upgrade the current cable systems, including some high-tech features being tested around the world.

"Consumers will clearly benefit," Lois Leach, director of corporate information for U.S. West Inc., said Tuesday. "They will have more choices, better quality and services in the future than they ever dreamed of."

Some of those features will be on-line computer access, video-on-demand and telephone service, Leach said. Services could be available in about two years, she added.

"Television sets are becoming more and more computer-like," Leach said from her Englewood, Colo., office. "In the future, we expect people will have some kind of device in their homes that will allow them to receive and send signals, and allow them to do interactive shopping, interactive games, transactions and all kinds of services like that."

Although that device is currently being tested, Leach said it will probably be with the aid of a cable box remote. Cost for the features will depend on the market and subscriber demands, she added.

Thanks to the installment of high-tech hardware and fiber optic lines, the company will be able to someday offer elaborate services.

"Let's say you want to plan an evening of entertainment," Leach said. "Let's say you wanted to go to a movie. You could navigate around the screen, looking for movies and theaters in your neck of the woods. You could buy your tickets.

"Then you could go on and let's say in addition to a movie, you wanted to go eat dinner. Using the remote control, you could pick a variety of restaurants in your area."

She said those features are currently in the trial stages in parts of the nation, and so far have proven successful.

Company officials hope to even offer interactive games on the cable system. "You will have the ability to log on and play a game with someone across town or in another country," Leach said.

Another feature could be video-on-demand. It works like this: Say there is a pay-for-view movie you want to see at your convenience, and not the cable company's. With your remote, you will be able to order that movie with as little as five minutes notice and watch it at the time you want, Leach said.

"People like to have the option of watching things when they want to watch them," Leach said.

And along with the upgraded cable service, consumers may have a choice when it comes to telephone service. Leach said the company is hoping to offer telephone service along with cable.

"There are a couple of tests on this right now," she said. "It's happening in the United Kingdom and is working very well . . . We had a 15 percent increase in the number of subscribers year over year."

The benefits? "You get one-stop shopping," Leach said. "One bill, one provider and maybe rate advantages.

"You could certainly say there is a lAot of research going on to determine what the customer wants," Leach said.

The plans of upgrading local cable service, especially allowing local merchants and restaurants to advertise on a cable channel is good news, officials with the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce said.

"Isn't it awesome," said Leigh Engdahl, chamber executive vice-president. "I think whenever a company or a group comes up with something innovative, it's a good thing for business."

Currently local merchants' choices for TV advertising are slim, Engdahl said. "Right now you have the print and electronic media," she said.

"This is going to be different."