Faithful followers of government and school board meetings on LTV’s government and education channel in East Hampton Town or fans of LTV’s public access shows like “Hello Hello,” “Two Jews Making Food,” or “Meet the Mayor” may have been bewildered this week to find the programming suddenly gone from Altice/Optimum’s Channels 20 and 22.
Instead, LTV’s meeting coverage and public access shows can now be found on Altice/Optimum’s Channels 1300 and 1310.
The change was made with no advance notice to LTV and “has caused confusion for residents, disrupted public hearing notices, and weakened a vital line of emergency communication for our community,” read a message on LTV’s website on Tuesday. LTV, a nonprofit with studios and a theater in Wainscott, also live-streams school and government meetings and offers coverage of them on its YouTube channel.
In a press release issued Tuesday, the nonprofit vowed that it and its “municipal partners are actively fighting to have Channels 20 and 22 restored to their proper positions.” Until then, government and education programming is on Channel 1310 and public access programming can be found on Channel 1300. By Wednesday, Optimum's director of government affairs indicated a possible change of plans, writing that it would "be delaying the change in positioning of these PEG [public, education, and government] channels and is actively working to move them to their original locations. We anticipate this process to take effect within the next month."
“The team at LTV will endeavor to serve the East End community with hyper-local news, transparent government meetings, and a forum for free speech and expression, regardless of where we live on your dial,” Josh Gladstone, its interim executive director, said in a release.
