Comcast today discontinued carriage of WTNH-TV and WCTX-TV in Fairfield County, according to a statement released by the New Haven-based broadcaster.
“Due to confidentiality provisions of our agreement with Comcast, we cannot provide much additional information,” WTNH said in a statement, “but we can assure viewers that there is a retransmission consent agreement in place, which allows Comcast to carry WTNH-TV and WCTX-TV. The decision to stop the carriage is solely at Comcast”™s discretion.”
ABC affiliate WTNH and MyNetworkTV affiliate WCTX are owned by Nexstar Media Group and share studios in New Haven.
The company said it believes the decision was made “at least partially” due to the Nielsen Co.”™s assignment of Fairfield County to the New York Designated Market Area.
“Because Nielsen has assigned Fairfield County to New York, Comcast is obligated to carry WABC-TV and WWOR-TV (MyNetworkTV), while its carriage of WTNH-TV and WCTX-TV is optional,” it said. “In the event that Comcast notifies us that it would like to resume carrying WTNH-TV and WCTX-TV, the carriage would be governed by our existing agreement, without a need for negotiations.”
Comcast, which is headquartered in Philadelphia, did not respond to requests for comment.
The two stations are still available to many residents at no charge through their over-the-air broadcast signals or through paid TV service provider Frontier Communications.
Simply stated, if you don’t bring back WTNH-TV to our Fairfield County, CT line-up, I will drop Comcast. You continue to raise rates and diminish services arbitrarily, ie. dropping ME-TV. I almost dropped you last time. This will push me over the edge. Bring it back or lose my monthly $270.00.
What sort of moderation do you expect?
I am going to Frontier I miss my Channel 8 not only the news but the programs scheduled after that. Wow I cannot believe they would not consider keeping them! Live in Danbury I want my news 8! Streaming is not that good and frustrating.
My comments are intended for Comcast. If you cannot forward as written ,then forget my reply. There will be no moderation…
From what I understand Shelton and Danbury have lost WTNH News 8. People who live in New Haven County still are able to watch channel 8WTNH which I can’t understand why some towns are being penalized . I live in Shelton I always watched channel 8WTNH and I’m totally PISSED OFF ! that Comcast would do this . This is my local news station and watched it every morning and it’s totally wrong that they would take it away but they make sure they get their money each month .
. Comcast is making big money and ripping off their customers . Shame on you Comcast, bring back WTNH News 8 .
This is glorious news! WTNH and the Hartford area stations do NOT serve CT and the Tri-state area – the like going away from us and towards Boston! We are in metro NYC – Americans largest metro area – not Boston and we don’t care about Boston. The only people who might care about WTNH and it’s fake channel 9 are people who relocated from other areas or people who hate the fact that CT is in metro NYC.
Here are some facts. WTNH has been an enemy of the Tri-state area (probably due to it’s RI owner) and they got the REAL channel 9 removed from New Haven area Comcast and replaced with their fake channel 9. They also got WABC7 blacked out in order to try and shut down all NYC presence in CT (except off-air and Frontier). WTIC61 also got WNYW5 taken off New Haven areas Comcast in order to remove NYC in CT. The funny part is, WTIC is in Hartford and they did not even get channel 5, but they wanted to remove any and all NYC channels. This is why they call themselves “Fox CT” because channel 5 was “Fox 5.”
These small affiliates have some nerve trying to challenge the flagship channels. What this is really about is Boston doing their best to try and removed NYC from CT (impossible!) so they pay off others in CT to do the work for them. The ONLY thing they have to work with is proclaiming CT to be “New England,” so Boston is in NE so therefore CT should lean toward Boston. Well Boston is light years from CT and no part of CT is in the Boston region. All Boston sports are out of market to all of CT.
NYC is mere minutes away from CT while Boston is HOURS away. We all know this, so we cannot play games. Hartford DMA channels started this war, so now the shoe is on the other foot. They should have stayed in their lanes. We do not want out of market news that tries to impose out of that THAT market sports teams and news on us when we are no where near them. Hartford can have Boston if that’s want they want, and we like NYC! Good riddance – and don’t come back! We cannot even pick up New Haven or Hartford stations off-air, but we can for NYC, as they are closer.
I agree !!!!! I want WTNH back or I am leaving Comcast….
There is a similar issue in Norton/Mansfield/Easton, Massachusetts. Comcast serves those three communities but will only carry the NBC affiliate from Providence, RI because of the same stupid FCC rules.
These FCC rules go back to the 1950 when TV was invented and no longer work. The NY stations never come to Fairfield County yet demand carriage, the CT stations should have a right to kick them out. Why are NY & NJ stations allowed to broadcast in Fairfield County? There are parts of NJ that are closer to Philadelphia yet the NY stations and the NY sports teams do not allow the Philly stations and teams to be carried locally. Bridgeport is 55 miles from Hartford and 75 miles from NYC so how is that considered to be local. The FCC is lax and lazy and do not answer taxpayers complaints. These laws need to be address all over the country.