Facing blowback, Optimum will reverse channel changes for government, public access TV

Local government and public access channels will be returning to their prior channel positions in the middle of September.

Optimum notified the State Public Service Commission Thursday of its decision to return the channels to their original slots in the lineup on or about Sept. 16, after it received feedback from municipalities and other stakeholders.

“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 [public, education and government] channels to their prior channel positions, on or about September 16, 2025,” Altice USA’s Vice President For Government Affairs Chris Bresnan wrote in a letter filed electronically with the State PSC yesterday. Optimum’s reversal was first reported by Newsday Thursday evening.

As reported by RiverheadLOCAL Tuesday, Optimum on Aug. 22 moved local government and public access programming from their longtime channel positions in the heart of its channel lineup to a block of channels in the 1300s. 

While Altice, which owns Optimum, notified the PSC of that change a month earlier, it did not notify local municipalities, prompting outrage among some officials.

See prior story:  Optimum moves government, public access channels, surprising local officials (Aug. 26, 2025)

The company said the changes were made to “enhance our customers’ experience,” but Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico did not see it that way at all. 

Panico blasted the move to “the boondocks of cable programming…into the stratosphere next to nightly infomercials where you regularly find food juicers and ginsu knife sets.”

Huntington Town called the change “egregious” and said the cable company had violated the terms of its franchise agreement with the town by initiating the change without prior written notice. 

“An informed citizenry is essential to a healthy and robust participatory government.  All of our proceedings at town hall, from the most mundane to the most complex and contentious, should be easily accessible to our residents.  I’m pleased that Channel 18 will be restored as a resource for the people,” Panico said in response to Optimum’s change of heart.

Optimum “will issue an email communication to affected customers in the coming days to inform them of the restored channel positions,” Bresnan wrote in his letter to the PSC yesterday.  Impacted customers will also be notified through bill messages or inserts of the changes, he said.