PITTSBURGH (Newsradio 1020 KDKA) - Depending on what cable provider you have, you may not be able to watch some local TV stations.
The Post-Gazette’s Rob Owen tells KDKA Radio’s Lynne Hayes-Freeland that Comcast dropped WPXI’s cable station PCNC and Verizon’s FiOS has dropped WPXI-TV along with PCNC, Me-TV and Laff TV.
In addition, WTAE-TV, owned by Hearst Properties, could be pulled from AT&T’s DirecTV but Owen says the two sides are negotiating.
Owen says with fewer people watching TV, income from advertising is declining.
“Those owners of television stations needed to refill that money from somewhere and so they were finding a way to get it from the cable companies in these retransmission consent agreements,” said Owen.
Retransmission consent agreements require cable and satellite providers to get permission from broadcasters before they carry their channel.
Owen says those dissatisfied can call and complain but that television caters to advertisers, not viewers.
“It’s not about what we the viewers want, it’s about how can we make the biggest buck as a broadcasting company,” said Owen.
Owen says Verizon dropped the Weather Channel in 2015 and the only reason it came back in 2019 was a financial decision, not because of customer complaints.
Owen says switching a cable provider is not the solution because your new provider may also drop a favorite channel.
The only way to guarantee you have all of Pittsburgh’s local stations is with an antenna but with Pittsburgh’s hilly topography, that too can sometimes cause issues.
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