[ Editor’s note: See our original story on this: “Must-carry denied in Key West“]
In June 2011, WEYW got carriage on ATT- UVerse under a rebroadcast agreement and Comcast under a lease access agreement. Prior to WEYW getting connected, the former owners of WEYW (New Colonial Broadcasting) were on the cable system in the Florida Keys Cable Channel 19 and broadcasting analog. They were on the cable system for five months in 2008 and due to excessive lease access fees, were forced to shut down their operation. At that time, there were two other LP TV stations on the cable system (WCAY Channel 36 a tourist channel and WTVK Channel 31). Comcast has Spot-light channel 5 which is a free channel to them on the cable system which sells advertising on that channel along with the other 72 networks that they carry on their cable system. They compete with local LP TV stations in the market by selling ads in the same area. Comcast does not have to pay for carriage in this market and since they own the cable system they get preferred channel placement — Channel 5.
