The Register Citizen reported this weekend that fans of the New England Patriots in parts of Litchfield and New Haven counties were out of luck Saturday night if they were hoping to watch the AFC playoffs. The game was carried nationwide on CBS, but the network’s local affiliate, WFSB, is currently blacked out for Cablevision customers in Litchfield, New Haven and Fairfield counties because of a dispute between WFSB’s parent company, Meredith Corp., and the New York-based cable provider.
U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy sent a letter to both companies last week urging them to end the blackout:
“Until an agreement can be reached with Cablevision, we urge WFSB to commit to returning local programming that includes emergency alerts, local news and weather information as well as local sporting events such as this weekend’s Patriots playoff game. Also, although we understand that Cablevision is reluctant to pay twice for the same programming, many Connecticut consumers understandably value Connecticut-based journalism and broadcasting. The public interest is best served by returning carriage of WFSB to all Connecticut residents as early as possible. In the meantime, we ask that Cablevision commit to refund any Litchfield and New Haven County subscribers, who may request a portion of their monthly bill commensurate with WFSB’s value.“
Both Cablevision and WFSB representatives are expected to attend Wednesday’s Cable Television Advisory Council meeting to discuss the dispute.
blumie and murphy need to shut up. the fight is over cablevision paying wfsb to be on in fairfield county, (this is the nyc market and wcbs is the cbs station for the area) cablevision had agree on paying to be on in litchfield and the other area where wcbs is not in there lineup ( the hartford tv market) but wsfb wants all or nothing. so there to our 2 senators shut up and fix the healthcare mess
Any diversion from true issues seems to be the mode of our illustrious Senator who never met a camera he did’t like.
Fairfield county is in Connecticut. New York stations don’t cover that area at all – put the county where it should be and none of this would be an issue at all.