WLWC-TV, the CW affiliate serving the Providence RI-New Bedford MA DMA wishes to be the only CW affiliate on Comcast of Southern New England, and applied to the FCC to enforce its non-duplication rights. The ouster target: Sunbeam Television’s WLVI-TV Cambridge MA, bringer of CW programming to the Boston DMA.
The issue hinges on whether or not WLVI receives significant over-air viewership in the area served by the cable system. If it meets certain thresholds, then it qualifies as a local station and is not subject to non-duplication rules.
Four Points hired Nielsen to study the matter, and it found that over a two-year period there was not enough over-air local viewing to warrant carriage of WLVI on the Comcast system in question, deciding the matter in Four Points’ favor.
Not that Sunbeam seems overly distressed about it. The Four Points action went unopposed.
