New England Cable News to End?

[bostonmediaguy 129]

Another regional cable news channel is likely coming to an end. New England Cable News (NECN) is being dropped from Comcast cable systems on July 1.

 

Comcast owns the channel and I believe that there is very little original programming airing; it's most simulcasts of WBTS/Boston (NBC O&O) newscasts, recorded lifestyle programming, and infomercials.

 

While owner Comcast is dropping it from their systems, the article notes that other providers haven't announced its removal, so it may live on a bit longer.

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

It needs to end and that's from someone who has LOVED and ADORED NECN.

 

It hasn't been the same since their Hearst days when the channel was much more managed and ACTUALLY focused on New England stories compared to just Boston.

 

Today, NECN only airs news on weekdays. Weekends is mainly focused on lifestyle programs, outside of weekend mornings and even then, hours were crap. The last regional newscasts are 7-10, 11-11:30am, 12-2 and 3-4pm. WBTS' news are airing from 5-7am, 2-3, 4-6:30, and 7-7:30pm. So much for New England news...

 

New England is a VERY UNIQUE region and it did deserve its own regional cable news channel. It sucks that NBC ruined it and I hope that NBC doesn't get into the 24-hour local news game ever again (and I'm not talking about streaming).

[mre29 1967]

NECN isn't even on Spectrum here in my part of CT, so I haven't been able to watch it since we moved from NH over a year ago.

 

3 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

It hasn't been the same since their Hearst days when the channel was much more managed and ACTUALLY focused on New England stories compared to just Boston.

 

Today, NECN only airs news on weekdays. Weekends is mainly focused on lifestyle programs, outside of weekend mornings and even then, hours were crap. The last regional newscasts are 7-10, 11-11:30am, 12-2 and 3-4pm. WBTS' news are airing from 5-7am, 2-3, 4-6:30, and 7-7:30pm. So much for New England news...

 

I imagine Comcast not wanting to run newscasts from stations they don't own (Tegna's WCSH/WLBZ, Sinclair's WJAR, Nexstar's WWLHearst's WPTZ), but you'd think they'd at least run newscasts from their other New England-based station -- WVIT here in CT. To say nothing of, oh.... Telemundo Boston.

 

Makes you wonder what would've happened if Hearst owned stations in more than just 4 of the 9 DMAs...

 

2 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

New England is a VERY UNIQUE region and it did deserve its own regional cable news channel. It sucks that NBC ruined it and I hope that NBC doesn't get into the 24-hour local news game ever again (and I'm not talking about streaming).

 

I think streaming (via apps or the FAST services) is the closest they'll likely get anytime soon, especially since NBC Nonstop didn't work out in the long run.

 

 

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

I just realized that half of the 12 hours its airs news on weekdays is on Boston (6:30 and 7:30pm repeats of the 6 and 7pm news are on there too) with the other half on New England.

 

So much for New England news when you don't even focus on the region half the time on weekdays.

 

Either become Boston Cable News or just shut it down entirely. IMO, I'm on the latter. NBC damaged the channel too much for it to be saved.

 

I wouldn't want Boston news if I lived in Pittsfield, Mass. or New Haven or even in Presque Isle, yet, NBC doesn't care.

 

I've been very very fortunate to have watched NECN from the late 90s to the mid 2010s. IMHO, the golden era of the network was the 2000s. As I've said, Hearst was better at managing this channel than NBC ever has.

 

Also, going into speculation territory here but, I think Hearst should reacquire 50% of the channel and hope that NBC will divest its other 50% to Gray since they own stations in 5 out of the 9 DMA's (only conflict would be Burlington but that's a minor thing). I know that will never happen but imagine if it did.

[kdex86 66]

On 6/9/2025 at 12:37 PM, bostonmediaguy said:

Another regional cable news channel is likely coming to an end. New England Cable News (NECN) is being dropped from Comcast cable systems on July 1.

 

NECN is still available through Xfinity where I live (SE MA).  Not sure if it's because I'm in Bristol County where we're still forced to watch WJAR for NBC programming.

On weekdays from 5 - 7 AM, 4 - 6:30 PM, and 7 - 7:30 PM they're simulcasting NBC 10 Boston's newscasts.  Which is nice since WBTS isn't on cable here (and probably never will be )

[mre29 1967]

1 hour ago, kdex86 said:

NECN is still available through Xfinity where I live (SE MA).  Not sure if it's because I'm in Bristol County where we're still forced to watch WJAR for NBC programming.

On weekdays from 5 - 7 AM, 4 - 6:30 PM, and 7 - 7:30 PM they're simulcasting NBC 10 Boston's newscasts.  Which is nice since WBTS isn't on cable here (and probably never will be )

 

Yeah, I noticed when I was at my brother's house last week (he has Hulu Live) that NECN now simulcasts NBC 10 Boston's newscasts. You'd think they'd at least show one from NBC Connecticut...

 

You'd think other providers would be threatening to remove it from their systems, especially far from Boston. But, then, HLN still exists...

 

 

[persistent whiner 2]

UPDATE: Spectrum to acquire NECN from NBCUniversal, merge with existing operations, rebrand to Spectrum News NECN, remain in NBC Boston studios.

 

https://corporate.charter.com/newsroom/spectrum-news-acquires-new-england-cable-news

[mre29 1967]

I wonder if this is why Spectrum didn't replace News 12 Connecticut on our system with a CT-focused Spectrum News 1 last year. We got Spectrum News NY1 on cable channel 1 instead.

 

[NYAZSporty 196]

1 hour ago, mre29 said:

I wonder if this is why Spectrum didn't replace News 12 Connecticut on our system with a CT-focused Spectrum News 1 last year. We got Spectrum News NY1 on cable channel 1 instead.

 

Have a feeling Optimum in CT might respond in kind to those areas that carry NECN, by dropping it & forcing ppl over to their News 12 Connecticut.

[mre29 1967]

44 minutes ago, NYAZSporty said:

Have a feeling Optimum in CT might respond in kind to those areas that carry NECN, by dropping it & forcing ppl over to their News 12 Connecticut.

 

That's what we had when we first moved here, even though Spectrum was already the cable provider. I'm guessing my town used to be in Optimum's territory but was eventually passed to Spectrum, with an agreement to keep News 12 CT on the system for a time.

 

Weirdly, N12CT was on channel 30, while channel 12 was unused. Nowadays, we have Spectrum News NY1 on channel 1 (in addition to 1517, grouped with all of the other Spectrum News channels) and the Spanish-language version on 12, while 30 is empty.  

 

Edited February 11 by mre29

[NowBergen 924]

3 hours ago, mre29 said:

I wonder if this is why Spectrum didn't replace News 12 Connecticut on our system with a CT-focused Spectrum News 1 last year. We got Spectrum News NY1 on cable channel 1 instead.

 

Optimum and Spectrum ended their agreements.  NY1 was removed from Optimum systems.  News12 removed from Charter systems.  

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

It looks like NECN will be saved!!!

 

This is better than shutting it down altogether.

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

13 hours ago, persistent whiner said:

UPDATE: Spectrum to acquire NECN from NBCUniversal, merge with existing operations, rebrand to Spectrum News NECN, remain in NBC Boston studios.

 

https://corporate.charter.com/newsroom/spectrum-news-acquires-new-england-cable-news

 

Let me add to this...

 

It doesn't mention Rhode Island, and there's a reason why. While there is Spectrum in Maine and Massachusetts, as well as Xfinity in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, Rhode Island has NEITHER. Your only two options for cable in The Ocean State are either Cox (which IIRC has never carried NECN at all in favor or RINC and later OSN) or Frontier FiOS (formerly Verizon, which HAS carried NECN before, not sure if they do now).

 

Rhode Island may be the only state in New England that will not have access to this network at all. I wonder if letting go of OSN with WJAR will FINALLY give in for Cox to finally start carrying NECN once the Spectrum era begins.

[atlnews2 631]

5 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

Let me add to this...

 

It doesn't mention Rhode Island, and there's a reason why. While there is Spectrum in Maine and Massachusetts, as well as Xfinity in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, Rhode Island has NEITHER. Your only two options for cable in The Ocean State are either Cox (which IIRC has never carried NECN at all in favor or RINC and later OSN) or Frontier FiOS (formerly Verizon, which HAS carried NECN before, not sure if they do now).

 

Rhode Island may be the only state in New England that will not have access to this network at all. I wonder if letting go of OSN with WJAR will FINALLY give in for Cox to finally start carrying NECN once the Spectrum era begins.

remember cox and charter are merging. So it’s kinda a moot point. Once cox customers are transferred to spectrum branded service it will probably carry necn 

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

7 hours ago, atlnews2 said:

remember cox and charter are merging. So it’s kinda a moot point. Once cox customers are transferred to spectrum branded service it will probably carry necn 

 

That's right, I forgot! So yeah, maybe NECN will finally get statewide cable carriage there after all.

[Megatron81 343]

Spectrum News is just like Headline News I think they only update twice a day in the morning than at night. Glad to see that NECN will remain with the Spectrum News branding.