FCC Law is Causing Stations to be Eliminated from Cable Lineups

At one time, southeastern Connecticut cable subscribers could channel surf between broadcast stations throughout Connecticut, Providence, Boston, and New York City.

Today, such surfing is limited mostly to Connecticut stations thanks to new fees by broadcast stations allowed by the Federal Communication Commission’s Communications Act. 

Earlier this year, Metrocast Communications removed WPRI and WLNE from their lineup after serving Montville, New London, Waterford, and East Lyme households for the past 30 years. 

The Day reported that if the company kept the channels, they would be forced to further increase customer rates. 

Each broadcast station provides a unique flavor of programming like original shows, popular reruns, sports, movies, and news.

The removal of WPRI and WLNE means MetroCast will only have three non-Connecticut based stations: WJAR, WGBH, and WGN.

I remember when the cable company, formerly Eastern Connecticut Cable, was home to several Boston stations including WBZ, WSBK, and WLVI. They also used to broadcast New York’s WWOR and WPIX.

Those stations were removed over the years despite requests from sports fans to keep them on the lineup. 

Montville’s newest cable company, AT&T U-verse, shows six New York stations on the on-screen guide but when tuning into the station, a message states “you are not subscribed to this channel” despite the fact that local channels are part of every package. 

These stations include WCBS, WNBC, WNYM, WABC, WPIX, and WWOR. They, along with the Connecticut stations, are available to Fairfield County subscribers.

Some of those New York stations are also available to Litchfield and New Haven county subscribers but not to subscribers in the state’s other six counties.

In Montville, MetroCast and AT&T carry most Connecticut broadcast stations, including WFSB, WVIT, WTIC, WTNH, WCTX, WCCT, WHPX, WEDH, and WRDM.

AT&T additionally carries Hartford’s WUTH, New York’s WNET, and New Jersey’s WNJN. 

I encourage readers to write to their elected officials so that cable systems will not continually be forced to remove channels, raise rates to keep Connecticut’s local channels, and scale back on capital improvements.

Patch readers: What cable or satellite system do you subscribe to? Do you enjoy watching local stations outside Connecticut for sports, news, weather, or movies? Do you use an antenna to get access to your local channels?