03-08-2007Warsaw Comcast cable customers no longer receive ABC affiliate WPTA channel 21, Fort Wayne.
Comcast eliminated WPTA on Warsaw’s cable television lineup the first week of March at the request of WBND 57, South Bend, and the Federal Communications Commission, according to Jerry Giesler, president and general manager of WPTA.
Giesler said stations have the right to petition to the FCC for another station to vacate a cable system that is not in the station’s area of dominant television market.
Comcast did not make the decision in taking WPTA off of Warsaw’s programming, according to Rich Ruggiero, vice president of communications for Comcast.
“Comcast doesn’t determine what constitutes a media market. Nielsen ratings and broadcasting stations determine the format based on FCC rules and regulations,” Ruggiero said.
Neal Sabin, executive vice president of Weigel Broadcasting that owns WBND, said programming changes were due to Nielsen ratings.
Sabin said according to statistics from Nielsen ratings, WPTA was not significantly viewed in the Warsaw market.
“WBND is only viable if we conserve our market in an exclusive manor,” Sabin said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon.
“Change in a system is hard, but the (programmg) that WPTA carried will be on WBND, Warsaw viewers will just not receive WPTA news and Fort Wayne commercials,” he said.
He said WBND is licensed to be the exclusive ABC affiliate for the South Bend market and Warsaw is part of the South Bend market – not the Fort Wayne market.
“Cable systems are allowed to carry, at times, stations from other markets when they are significantly viewed,” Sabin said.
Giesler said WBND notified WPTA more than a year ago about a request to eliminate WPTA from Warsaw’s television lineup. Giesler said he has fought since then to keep WPTA as part of Warsaw’s programming.
He said Comcast waited until television rating periods were over in February and notified the station the first week of March that WPTA will no longer be a part of Warsaw’s programming.
He said he has received calls from at least 100 Warsaw residents since the first week of March with their concerns in losing WPTA services.
He said WPTA does not support the decision to no longer allow WPTA to be on Warsaw’s Comcast programming.
“We have been taken off Warsaw’s programming against our own will and wish we could have had the opportunity to continue to provide services to Warsaw,” Giesler said.