Those who run the county's three access channels say the new rules, which would severely impact their revenue streams, would likely put them out of business and deprive the public of valuable programming available nowhere else.
"Without these stations, Berkshire County residents lose access to Massachusetts-specific information that matters to them, including Boston sports and news from their state capital, which is not reported on by an Albany station in New York." U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, in a letter to Charter-Spectrum
There was also considerable grumbling about Berkshire County being included in the Albany, New York, television market, resulting in very few stations from Springfield or Boston in the channel line-up and, therefore, a dearth of news coverage concerning Massachusetts.
The newly formed Spectrum (previously Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications) will be encrypting its signals and all subscribers will soon be required to have converters in order to watch TV.
