More than housewives desperate on L.A. cable system.

How appropriate that it took an episode of "Desperate Housewives" to awaken the Los Angeles City Council to the desperate state of cable television in the city of Los Angeles. A day after Adelphia Communications screwed up the broadcast of ABC's hit show, councilmembers were finally forced to tune in to the mess that is our cable television franchise.

The city's franchise agreements with its cable companies (Time Warner, Comcast, Adelphia, Cox) that cover over $400 million in revenue are now 20 years old and expired more than three years ago. These agreements, made before cell phones, before iPods, before just about every new electronic technology that we now take for granted, are crucial to cable services in the city.

The cable companies currently operate on extensions granted for the past three and a half years. It was a questionable strategy four years ago but now it is costing the city millions and keeping L.A. one of the most poorly served cable cities in America.

What's at stake? Obviously, better cable service, but just as importantly, revenue to City Hall, lots of it. Unlike satellite, federal law mandates that cable operators share a portion of their revenues with the cities they service. Los Angeles collects 5 percent of cable revenues as payment for access to public rights of way, meaning that the city sees a direct financial benefit when a customer chooses cable over satellite. In Los Angeles last year, cable fees totaled more than $20 million, with most of it going into the general fund.

The dirty little secret is the plummeting cable subscription rate. Today, less than 45 percent of available homes in the city take cable. That's 20 percent below the national average for large cities. Over the past four years while the contract has languished, satellite TV has made huge gains.

What everyone at City Hall needs to wake up to is that unlike cable, satellite services are not required to make a local franchise payment. As a simple business matter, the city and the cable operators are partners against evergrowing competition. The more people who subscribe to cable, the more the revenue the city collects. Somehow this message has gotten lost over the years.

Granted this is not a simple negotiation. Twenty years ago there was no competition from satellite TV, nor the looming competition from the phone companies. By today's standards, negotiating a cable contract in the '80s was a breeze. But that doesn't excuse our city from the responsibility of finalizing new contracts.

Yes, it is way past time for the city to finalize contracts appropriate for this new era of technology. Let's ensure that the cable companies upgrade their technology and their investment in the community. Let's mandate improved customer service and a commitment to more local programming. But please, let's just get this done.

Cable access channels such as LA36 are required by federal law and unique to cable. I like that. If programmed smartly, these channels are a distinct marketing advantage cable has over satellite. For four years we have attempted to show Los Angles cable subscribers what's possible in terms of local programming. But our hands our tied until these negotiations are finalized. In the arts, in civic affairs, even in high school sports, L.A. cable viewers deserve better local fare. Let's make that part of the deal, too.

Steve Grace is president of the Los Angeles Cable Television Access Corp. and general manager of LA36.