About Those Cuts at News 12

FTVLive told you about the large layoffs that hit News 12.

Back in mid-July, FTVLive told you that the cuts appeared to be centered on News 12 CT and News 12 Bronx.

Well, now the chairman of Connecticut's Public Utilities Regulatory Authority is warning executives with News 12 Connecticut that they need to notify regulators whether staffing cuts at the cable news channel will result in any programming reductions or changes.

The Stamford Advocate writes that in a letter sent on Aug. 27, PURA Chairman Thomas Wiehl warned Optimum Communications Director of Government Affairs Brian Smith that Connecticut law requires regulators to be notified of any programming changes no less than 30 days before implementing them.

"I note that we have not yet received any notification of planned changes to local news programming for News 12,"  Wiehl wrote in his letter to Smith. "My sincere hope is that this lack of notice is indicative that the above-cited reporting is incorrect, and that there will in fact be no changes to the local news programming that benefits the people of Connecticut who, in turn, pay Optimum’s consistently increasing rates and charges."

A News 12 viewer in Connecticut tells FTVLive, “The News 12 product is embarrassingly bad. The lucrative Fairfield (CT) County audience is seeing mostly crimes and fires from Brooklyn.