Re: Connecticut trip notes

[hmglaz@webtv.net (H Glazer)]

Garrett Wollman wrote:
 >Cox Cable Southington still carries channels 2, 4, 5, 9, 11 out of New
York. Why don't their local affils insist on the network exclusivity
they're entitled to?<

Cox also serves Meriden and Cheshire, both of which are in New Haven
County, whereas Southington is in Hartford County. This has always been
the explanation they've given when explaining some of the system's
quirks.

For some reason, Cox has never split its feed along county lines.
Southington, which should be able to get Celtics games on Fox Sports New
England's main feed, instead is stuck with the FSNE Fairfield/New Haven
feed, with the Celtics blacked out in favor of trashsports filler or
Nets games when available. Most New Haven County systems carry New York
network affils, and so does Cox, but Southington gets them as a bonus.

For awhile, a few years back, Cox was plugging the WVIT signal into the
WNBC slot during "Today." Then they started breaking away for five
minutes each half hour so the WNBC local newsbreak could be shown.  I
believe there's no switching now -- the signal on position 4 is 100%
WVIT and the signal on position 13 is 100% WNBC.

Is Cox within its rights to run a system this way, or could the Hartford
affils -- or FSNE -- force them to split Southington's feed from
Meriden/Cheshire's?

Howard

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