Duff & Fairfield County Legislators Fight to Keep Local Channels Accessible

HARTFORD – Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff and a coalition of Fairfield County Democrats wrote Thursday to Altice USA, owner of Optimum cable, to oppose the telecommunication company’s planned reassignment of local government and educational channels for much of the region.

In a letter to Altice Chairman and CEO Dennis Mathew, the legislators voiced their disappointment and concern related to Optimum’s abrupt and poorly communicated decision to shift programming from the long-standing channels 78 and 79 to the 1300 range for municipalities in the Area 9 Cable Council.

The changes are expected to result in confusion among audiences in Greenwich, Darien, Easton, New Canaan, Norwalk, Redding, Stamford, Westport, Weston and Wilton, who have tuned in to channels 78 and 79 for local government and educational programing for more than two decades.

“Local programs are vital to our democracy,” the legislators wrote. “They provide community-specific information, foster civic engagement, and provide a platform for local voices and diverse perspectives. This sudden and ill-advised decision to change channel positions will, in effect, exile local content by hiding it with a new channel assignment.”

Click here to read the letter.

The legislators expected Optimum’s decision would require costly rebranding for local stations, such as changing “Darien TV79” to “Darien TV,” and would place the burden of informing viewers on the local stations themselves.

They also criticized Optimum for providing customer notice only through billing statements, which they argued are often crowded with excess information and fine print.

In their letter, the lawmakers urged Altice to reverse the change or explain why the reassignment was necessary, why it had to be implemented so quickly, and what additional steps the company would take to inform customers. They also asked whether Altice would fund a broader information campaign to minimize the disruption.

“We hope that our concerns can be addressed to safeguard our communities’ access to local educational programming,” the legislators wrote.

The letter was signed by Senators Duff, D-Norwalk, Ceci Maher, D-Wilton, and Pat Billie Miller, D-Stamford, as well as Representatives Hector Arzeno, D-Greenwich, Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford, Eilish Collins Main, D-Stamford, Savet Constantine, D-Wilton, Lucy Dathan, D-New Canaan, Anne Hughes, D-Easton, Jonathan Jacobson, D-Stamford, Dominique Johnson, D-Norwalk, Stephen Meskers, D-Greenwich, Kadeem Roberts, D-Norwalk, and Travis Simms, D-Norwalk.

Connecticut Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff Elected Vice President of National Conference of State Legislatures

BOSTON—Connecticut Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D) has been elected vice president of the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan organization serving the nation’s 7,386 state lawmakers and more than 30,000 legislative staff.

Sen. Duff will serve one year as vice president, followed by a year as president-elect, and will become NCSL’s president at the 2027 Legislative Summit in Atlanta, Ga. NCSL’s presidency alternates between parties every year. Illinois Representative Marcus C. Evans Jr. (D) is NCSL’s newly elected president, and Montana Senator Barry Usher (R) is the president-elect.

Sen. Duff becomes the first Connecticut legislator elected vice president of the NCSL, and in coming years will become its first NCSL president-elect and president.

“In its 50 years of advancing the work of state legislators, NCSL has uniquely fostered a collaborative attitude that puts bipartisanship into action and has created lasting partnerships among the states. Stepping into the vice president position, I will channel NCSL’s emphasis on solving problems together and tackling issues that touch each of our states,” said Sen. Duff. “It’s not lost on me that this will provide Connecticut with direct connections to some of the best ideas, people and resources in the country. I’m focused on what this election means for my state – this is great news for Connecticut Senate Democrats, the Connecticut Legislature and the 3.6 million people who call Connecticut home.”

Sen. Duff served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 2002 to 2005 and was elected to the Connecticut Senate in 2004. He has been the Senate majority leader since 2015. He is an active member of NCSL, serving as co-chair of NCSL Standing Committees, an at-large member of the Foundation of State Legislatures Board and a member of the Executive Committee.

Since assuming the majority leader position, Sen. Duff has overseen passage of a rewrite of Connecticut’s education funding formula, the largest tax cuts in state history and paid family medical leave. As the former chair of both the Housing Committee and Banking Committee, he created the state’s first Housing Trust Fund to build more affordable homes and worked on several reforms to reduce foreclosures.

Sen. Duff earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Lynchburg College in Virginia and has been a real estate professional with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty for more than three decades. He lives in Norwalk, Conn. with his wife, Tracy, and two children.