Cablevision Clarifies It's Not Seeking To Change Ruling on WJLP Channel Position Amid Viacom Concerns

Cablevision clarified that it's not seeking to change an FCC Media Bureau declaratory ruling denying PMCM's request to operate WJLP Middletown, New Jersey, on virtual Channel 3.10. The cable operator was responding to a Viacom request that the bureau say that Cablevision doesn't need to carry the TV station on cable Channel 33 until conditions are met. As Cablevision said in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in opposing PMCM's mandamus petition, it also said in a filing posted in FCC docket 14-150 Monday that it will "take timely action with respect to PMCM’s carriage and channel placement elections." Viacom had said that it feared the ruling and a related bureau letter to Cablevision, Comcast and Time Warner Cable could mean that WJLP could "prematurely" displace the programmer's Nickelodeon from Channel 33 on Cablevision's New York market systems. After winning a rare FCC OK to move cross-country after the D.C. Circuit ordered it over the agency's objections, PMCM sought to operate the station in what would have been a technological first for broadcasting: on the same main program and system information protocol (PSIP) channel as Meredith Corp.’s WFSB Hartford, Connecticut, while each would have different virtual PSIP subchannels (see 1409160043).