LIN boots WABC out of parts of its Connecticut turf

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LIN MediaABC O&O WABC New York is significantly viewed in parts but not all of New Haven County CT, and LIN TV’s WTNH wants its network exclusivity enforced in those certain areas WABC does not reach. It was successful in three out of four of the communities.


Both stations are ABC affiliates, of course, or there would be no network exclusivity to enforce.
The communities LIN wanted WABC ousted from include Waterbury, Meriden, Wallingford and Milford.

LIN produced community-specific data for each community to prove its case that there is little or no viewership of WABC.

ABC contested only the Milford finding. It seems the Nielsen study for 2006 included data from two households, but there were none in the 2007 study, producing an average of one household. The FCC upheld ABC’s protest, saying one household provides insufficient evidence to prove LIN’s contention.

However, LIN’s cases won the day in the other three communities.

RBR-TVBR observation: We wonder how you can draw any particular conclusion from the sample size upon which the Milford case turned. Even if there were two households both years, it still seems a little thin, doesn’t it? However, none of the evidence provided included a sample with as many as 10 households. Even that seems kind of thin. But that is the body of evidence upon which this decision lies.