Optimum Reverses Course On Local Channel Reshuffling In Fairfield County

DARIEN, CT — About a week after Altice/Optimum moved the locally produced public, education and government channels up the dial in several Fairfield County towns, the company has reversed course and will change the channels back to their original positions.

The decision to move the channels back to 78 and 79 was explained in a letter obtained by Patch from Vice President of Government Affairs for Altice Chris Bresnan to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA).

In early August, it was announced that channels 78 and 79 were going to be moved to the 1300 positions in 10 municipalities, including Darien, Easton, Greenwich, New Canaan, Norwalk, Redding, Stamford, Westport, Weston and Wilton -- all part of the Area 9 Cable Council.

"Following that notice, the Company received feedback from local municipalities and other stakeholders who expressed concerns regarding the changes," Bresnan wrote. "After careful consideration of this input, while Optimum continues to believe that the changes would have provided benefits to customers, the Company has decided to return PEG channels to their prior channel positions, on or about September 16, 2025."

Bresnan said Optimum "values perspectives of its municipal partners and customers and takes the feedback received seriously." He said the company will continue to review its channel lineups on an ongoing basis "to ensure that lineups are managed in a way that balances customer needs, operational considerations, and the evolving programming landscape, and may revisit channel positioning at a future date."

Bresnan noted that Optimum will issue an email communication to affected customers in the coming days.

Local lawmakers pushed back on the original change, with Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-25) and a coalition of Fairfield County Democrats urging the cable company to reconsider. The Area 9 Cable Council also objected.

"While we are pleased that our objections and protest letters from local government official[s] were heard, this action will unfortunately add to confusion," said Area 9 Cable Council Chairman Hal Levy in a news release Friday.

The council is a state-created body that advocates for community cable TV.

"As with the shuffling done last week, Optimum’s parent company Altice did not ask our advice… they just did it," Levy added. "All of this mess could have been avoided with better planning and communications between Optimum and our member stations and we have responded with some suggestions to mitigate the confusion."

Darien's local channel rebranded from Darien TV79 to Darien TV following the original change. They will now have to rebrand yet again.

"Most of DarienTV's viewers watch our YouTube channels (live & On-Demand) or access us thru our website, NOT on cable," said Darien TV Program Director Jim Cameron in a statement to Patch. "Still, the cable audience is important to us and we realize a lot of those folks are older and may not be internet-savvy. This flip flop will be even more confusing to them.

"In any event, our programming continues apace as we enter a busy time for Town government. I'm confident our viewers will find us, relying as they do on us to keep them informed in our local news 'desert' here in Darien."

Greenwich officials also voiced displeasure when the channels were changed, with First Selectman Fred Camillo and Greenwich Community Television President Drew Marzullo criticizing the decision.

Greenwich is expected to release more information on the latest channel change next week.