Selling Cable in the Land of Rabbit Ears.

Byline: JON LAFAYETTE

Minneapolis is a tough place to sell television.

You would think the snow and cold weather would drive Minneapolitans indoors where they could warm themselves by the glow of the boob tube. But you'd be wrong, according to Eric Brown, president of Time Warner Cable's Minneapolis division.

"People here don't let the winter get in the way of being active," Brown said.

That translates into relatively low penetration for pay television. Combined penetration for cable and satellite TV is just 54%, far lower than the national average.

"My neighbors take pride in having only one TV in their house and having rabbit ears on it," said Brown. People there don't talk about The Sopranos or The West Wing, he said. Instead, they're very involved in community activities. "You hear them talking about their kids and the Lutheran Circle," Brown said. "TV is not the centerpiece of their lifestyle."

The family-oriented nature of the market "has a very definite impact on how people view technology and what their appetites are for entertainment and communications services," Brown said.

Fortunately for Time Warner Cable, while Minneapolis is traditional and family-oriented, it's also an upscale market in which high-speed Internet access is an easy sell.

"We do recognize that high-speed data is our growth engine, and we focus on growing our penetration there," Brown said. "About 25% of our customers have high-speed access, and it's growing every month."

Brown arrived in the market about a year ago from Los Angeles, which is a bit warmer. "It's been an absolutely delightful transition," he said. "The Twin Cities are very cosmopolitan. It's much more diverse than I was expecting, particularly in the city, which is our service area."

The city is the home for several major corporations, including Best Buy, ADC, 3M, American Express's IDS division, Target and Northwest Airlines.

"There is a very healthy corporate community," Brown said. "That makes for a community with a high level of education, a lot of dual-income families."

These are the folks scarfing high-speed service. Time Warner has offered Road Runner since 2000 and is now a multiple-ISP provider, with Earthlink, America Online, Max.Inter.net and BigNot available.

Still, Time Warner needs to sell its video products and has been refining new strategies to do that. In a market like Minneapolis, where television is deemed less …