Comcast drops NBC from many NJ systems

[Red_Bull_Ed]

Comcast Cable has droped WCAU NBC 10 Philadelphia from its basic cable lineup on Comcast of Ocean County (Toms River Area), Comcast of Central New Jersey in Middlesex County (East Brunswick Area) and Comcast of Warren County (Hackettstown, Washington Areas). Comcast still carries the station on channel 253 on its digital cable lineup. Why did they drop the station from channel 10 on basic cable and replace it with nothing? Cablevision still carries NBC 10 on its Monmouth and Ocean County systems (Freehold, Brick, Belmar, Seaside, ect.) Ocean County which is closer to Philadelphia than New York (even if it is in NY DMA) provide much better weather coverage to the area and all of Ocean County can be seen on weather radar and also seem to do a good job covering big news stories. Toms River, LBI, ect. temps are seen on all Philadelphia weather reports on CBS 3, ABC 6, and NBC 10. NY stations don't really even fit Ocen County on their maps. I would think most Ocean County cable viewers are very upset about this move and would rather have NBC 4 NY droped from the lineup before NBC 10 Philadelphia if they had to choose, but since they live at the shore in Ocean County they should not have to choose. Comcast should carry both stations and in southern Ocean County (Tuckerton, Manahawkin, LBI) NBC 40 Atlantic City should be carried.

 

[rch66]

What's unfair is WNBC is still kept on analog cable in the Philadelphia DMA parts - Comcast Trenton (on CH.4), and in the Lehigh Valley though that's not Comcast up there. Thus if NBC commanded the move for exclusivity, it should have worked the other way too. That CH.10 have exclusive protection in its areas.

The message is protect WNBC and keep its exposure up in areas outside its DMA, while screw WCAU in the process from even having Ocean County, where it is a closer TV signal.

Are the residents in Northern Ocean County, like Brick NJ, upset also? I'd think they maybe more into the NY area - as they are more commuters to NY and NNJ towns from Brick than they're are commuters to Philadelphia (from Brick).

The viewership habits of Brick's TV HH affect TV station availability in Southern Ocean Co., which is less populated. Even though Brick is 36 miles away from Southern Ocean Co. areas, which is 70 miles and more from NYC. Nielsen Media Research should have split the county and classified the southern part as within the Philadelphia DMA boundaries.

Cablevision in Jackson, NJ and southern Monmouth doesn't carry KYW, but they oddly they do carry WYBE 35, which isn't even carried in Atlantic City and south - all throughout the Philadelphia DMA.

I suspect it's a Comcastic move, and NBC didn't challenge the issue. I don't think NBC instructed Comcast to do this (it's still a small handful of TV HH and it won't make much difference to WNBC's ratings). However, NBC did get involved in the drop of KYW from Cablevision (Jackson) several years ago.