SPANISH FORK — College sports fans in Spanish Fork will have to pay a little more to follow BYU and the University of Utah after the City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a rate hike for certain packages offered by the city-owned cable television system.

The increase of $1.83 per month will affect subscribers to Spanish Fork Cable Network's expanded basic, digital basic and full package plans.

The increase is a direct result of SFCN's decision to add College Sports Television and The mtn., which have an exclusive deal with the Mountain West Conference to broadcast certain football games and other sports. Outdoor Life Network, which will be known as Versus beginning Monday, also will feature some games and, as a result, was moved down to the expanded basic package.

"We try to keep our prices down. We don't like to increase our prices ... but all our increases are when the provider increases the cost to us," said John Bowcut, the city's information services director who oversees SFCN.

The programming changes were made last month. Bowcut said the possibility of a rate increase was mentioned at the time, but city officials had not yet been able to analyze it and determine how much it would be.

"The timing was so short, we had to do something quick or we were going to miss football games," Bowcut said.

The mtn., which launched Sept. 1, has received a cool reception from many fans who don't have access to the channel. Many Utah cable companies have picked it up, but CSTV has been unable to broker a deal that would land the channel on satellite providers.

Comcast, which has a 50 percent stake in CSTV, and MSTAR both have added CSTV and The mtn. to their basic cable packages in Utah without increasing rates.

But a spokesman for MSTAR, which serves customers throughout central and northern Utah, acknowledged that The mtn. is a costly channel for cable providers to carry.

"Although it is an expensive channel for us, we added (The mtn.) because it's what people wanted," said MSTAR spokesman Matt Clayton.

Clayton said MSTAR received hundreds of calls from customers who wanted the channel, so the company decided to shuffle its lineup and drop some less popular channels in order to add The mtn. at no additional cost. It already carried OLN and CSTV.

"We were going to do whatever it took," Clayton said.

Bowcut said he would like to be able to make the channel available only to those who want it, but current federal regulations don't allow for that kind of programming, he said. The increase is only to cover SFCN's costs to make the changes and "not a dime more," he said.

Despite the rate increase, Bowcut said he has received nothing but positive feedback. No one at Tuesday's meeting spoke against the increase.

"I have had more positive response from people for adding The mtn. than any other channel we've ever added," Bowcut said.

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E-mail: jtwitchell@desnews.com