Last week Spectrum customers in parts of Western New York and the Southern Tier learned that WROC-TV was being dropped from their channel lineup.
Now, Spectrum customers in Ontario and Wayne counties are seeing the same thing happen with WSYR-TV. For most customers – those channels represent 8 and 9 on their lineup. However, as of January 23, both have been dropped from Spectrum’s lineup.
For the WSYR cancelation, impacted communities include the cities of Canandaigua and Geneva; towns of Arcadia, Bristol, Butler, Canadice, Canandaigua, East Bloomfield, Farmington, Galen, Geneva, Hopewell, Huron, Junius, Lyons, Macedon, Manchester, Marion, Naples, Ontario, Palmyra, Phelps, Richmond, Rose, Savannah, Seneca, Sodus, South Bristol, Victor, Walworth, Williamson, Wolcott; and the villages of Bloomfield, Clifton Springs, Clyde, Macedon, Manchester, Naples, Newark, Palmyra, Phelps, Red Creek, Shortsville, Sodus, Sodus Point, Victor, and Wolcott.
Spectrum said notices were sent out to impacted customers. However, several reported to FingerLakes1.com that they never received such a notice. The notice indicates that customers who lost channels have 30 days to disconnect or change service within 30 days.
The reduction in local channels comes as the company announced yet another rate hike recently. In fact, many of the service increases took effect on January 30.
“Spectrum has taken a stand for a new, customer-focused model that provides more value and choice for video entertainment when negotiating all of our programming agreements,” a Charter VP told the Democrat and Chronicle about rate hikes. “Despite these ongoing efforts, programmers continually raise fees for their content, which are passed through as increased fees to viewers and drive higher costs across the entire industry.”
For many customers, though, the feeling is that Spectrum service continues to become less, while continuing to cost more.
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