TV Q&A: How can Verizon customers watch Penguins games this winter?

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review.

Q: How are Verizon customers supposed to watch Penguins games when their season starts?

— Sandy via email

Rob: AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh has been unavailable to Verizon’s FiOS TV subscribers since late September. For Verizon customers who want to see Penguins games on the channel once the NHL season begins, the choices are stay with Verizon or switch to another cable provider (unless the parties reach a deal).

Another option is to subscribe to a digital streaming service that carries AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, including fuboTV, AT&T TV or AT&T TV Now.

Q: I was wondering what happened to Kristine Sorensen on KDKA-TV? Also I notice that Kym Gable is on all three hours of KDKA’s evening news. Is it because of the covid-19 virus?

— Gladys via email

Rob: Sorensen posted on her Facebook page that she was out for a few weeks after foot surgery.

Gable is a freelancer who fills in when needed and she was needed while Sorensen recuperated.

Q: My wife and I live in Punxsutawney, Jefferson County, and have enjoyed watching the variety of TV outlets in the Pittsburgh news area, including WQED, WTAE, KDKA, WPXI. We always received WPXI on the standard channel list but a few weeks ago WPXI disappeared from the lineup.

Any explanation from WPXI why that channel and its personalities are not appearing on our area’s Comcast TV anymore?

— Tom Curry, Punxsutawney

In both Clarion and Brookville Comcast cable system line-ups, WPXI and WTAE have been removed. In last months Comcast bill, it stated WPXI was going to be removed but no reason was given. Late last week, I turned to WTAE and it was WATM-TV out of Altoona.

— Jim, Clarion

Rob: As the broadcast TV business continues to evolve, we’re likely to see more changes like this.

There is no “must-carry” rule for Pittsburgh stations in locations outside the Pittsburgh TV market. A look at a list of counties included in the Pittsburgh designated market area shows Jefferson County, which includes Punxsutawney and Brookville, is not part of the Pittsburgh DMA so technically cable customers in those counties were never entitled to get Pittsburgh TV stations and Comcast could choose to drop them at any time. (On cable systems that carry two of the same network affiliate, cable companies are usually asked by the must-carry station to black out duplicate programming on the out-of-market station, which can result in a cable company devoting a channel position to a station that is generally blacked-out except during local newscasts.)

Clarion is in the Pittsburgh DMA and Comcast says WPXI and WTAE are still available in Clarion County (perhaps Jim has a Clarion mailing address but actually resides in Jefferson County).

WTAE general manager Charles Wolfertz said he could not comment on any carriage deals and WPXI general manager Kevin Hayes did not respond to a request for comment.

My understanding is local TV stations are now apt to either rescind permission for carriage in these outlying counties or demand payment for carriage, which Comcast isn’t going to provide because they’re under no obligation to carry an additional ABC or NBC station.

Q: What happened to Light TV? It used to be on Channel 19.4. I used to watch “Heartland” on that channel.

— Richard via Facebook

Rob: Light TV was a digital subchannel carried by some CBS-owned stations but a decision at the corporate level was made to drop the channel. In October the network was sold and is slated to be rebranded next year. No replacement has been added locally and the channel is dark. Netflix has 11 seasons of “Heartland” available for streaming.