Comcast drops WTNH, WCTX in Fairfield County

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.