Time Warner Cable dropped Buffalo, N.Y.-based ABC affiliate WKBW-TV from its system in Hornell, N.Y. The MSO already carries the feed for Elmira, N.Y.-based ABC affiliate WENY-TV in Hornell, and said it refused demands from station owner Granite Broadcasting that it pay for duplicate broadcast channels.
"It doesn't make sense for our customers to carry duplicate broadcast channels in one market ... as long as they're insisting we carry both, we're not going to renew the contract," Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Stephanie Salanger told the Hornell Evening Tribune.
For local subscribers in Hornell, a town of about 9,000 residents located about 100 miles southeast of Buffalo, the dispute is about the quality of local news programming. Some viewers aren't satisfied with programming from WENY, based in Elmira, which is the 174th Nielsen DMA, with about 96,000 TV homes. They also want to receive local news programming from WKBW in Buffalo, which serves 645,190 homes and is the 51st largest Nielsen market.
Hornell's mayor is protesting the move, demanding that Time Warner supply the town with an ABC affiliate from Buffalo or Rochester, N.Y.
