Three cities last week jointly petitioned the FCC for a declaratory ruling against Charter Communications, asserting the operator removed local Northwest Broadcasting affiliate TV stations without giving the required advanced notice.
The petitioners, including the cities of Yuma, Ariz., and El Centro, Calif., and the town of Jackson, Wyo., claim in the complaint that the cities and subscribers of Charter-owned Bresnan and Time Warner Cable Pacific West did not get notice of the removal of local Northwest stations on Charter-owned systems in their respective municipalities until after they went dark on Feb. 2.
The FCC requires Charter provide 30 days advanced notice of station blackouts.
“KYMA and KSWT, [are] affiliates of NBC and CBS, respectively, and both owned by Northwest. On February 2, 2018 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, Charter removed KYMA and KWST from its channel lineup for customers in Yuma. Yuma was not notified by any Charter entity until 5:31 p.m. Eastern, half an hour after the channels were removed. Subscribers in Yuma were not notified by any Charter entity until 7:03 p.m. Eastern, more than two hours after the removal of the channels from their packages,” the petition reads.
The town of Jackson claims it was never notified at all and had to contact Charter to ask about the blackout, with Charter responding via a letter 11 days after the channels were removed.
“Not only did Charter fail to provide advance notice, the notice it did provide was misleading. It implied customers had streaming alternatives that either were not adequate substitutes, or would not actually be available to them once Charter stopped carrying the stations. Subscribers were not only given late notice, they were given misleading notice Friday afternoon on Super Bowl weekend.”
Eleven Northwest network affiliates were removed from Charter systems.
In the petition, the municipalities ask that the commission declare that Charter violated the FCC rules, order Charter to make public disclosures to fix any misrepresentation that Charter wasn’t at fault for the channel deletion, ensure subscribers receive refunds, and impose fines for the operator’s “intentional” violation of the commission’s rules.
A Charter spokesperson declined to comment on the petition.
