Charter Communications and Altice U.S. are winding down a content distribution agreement that involved the carriage of each other’s regional news channels on Spectrum and Optimum TV.
At the end of June, Spectrum TV customers will lose access to News 12 in markets where the channel is available, and Optimum TV customers will no longer be able to watch Spectrum News with their cable subscription.
The move will primarily impact customers in the tri-state area around New York City, where Altice operates a handful of News 12 regional news channels and Charter distributes Spectrum News NY1.
In a statement, a Charter spokesperson said the decision to stop offering News 12 followed moves by Altice U.S. to withdraw from certain cable TV industry groups.
“The cable industry operates under a shared collective of partnerships, member organizations and collaborative arrangements that benefit the entire ecosystem of our businesses and customers,” the Charter spokesperson said. “Altice has removed itself from these groups and the professional courtesy of peer-to-peer collaboration no longer exists with their company. As a result, we made a business decision to no longer carry News 12.”
Altice said it was disappointed by the loss of Spectrum News on its platform.
“We do not agree with their decision and have worked hard to preserve the mutual carriage relationship that brings Optimum customers access to NY1 and Charter customers access to News 12,” Altice U.S. said. ” At a time when access to options regarding local news is essential, we can only say that we are disappointed with Charter’s decision.”
Cablefax was the first to report on the end of Altice U.S. and Charter’s reciprocal regional news distribution agreement. The deal does not involve i24 News, an international news channel that Altice U.S. licenses for distribution in the United States, which is covered under a separate agreement with Charter.
Charter and Altice U.S. first began distributing each other’s news channels in 2017, with Optimum offering Spectrum News NY1 alongside News 12 and Spectrum doing the same.
Optimum customers will continue to have access to the national feed of Spectrum News Plus through Xumo Play, which is available as a free download on Apple and Android phones and tablets, and on smart TV platforms like Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV (Google TV), among others.
Likewise, Spectrum customers will be able to watch programming from News12 New York through Paramount-owned streaming service Pluto TV, which is available as a free download on nearly all phone, tablet and smart TV platforms.
