Greenwich residents will keep dedicated cable coverage of town government meetings after a state regulator preliminarily rejected a plan to regionalize the community-access channel.

The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) issued a preliminary decision denying a petition by Farmington-based Nutmeg Public Access Television to take over community-access operations in southwestern Connecticut, according to the League of Women Voters of Greenwich. The docket remains open, and a final ruling is expected in late September 2026.

Nutmeg filed its petition in September 2025 under PURA Docket No. 25-09-07, seeking to replace the town-by-town model with a regional channel combining meetings from Greenwich, Norwalk, Darien, Westport, Easton and Wilton. Under the proposal, programming control would have shifted from the local Area Nine Cable Council to Nutmeg, according to the Easton Courier.

GCTV Channel 79, carried on the Altice cable system, airs meetings of the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) and the Representative Town Meeting (RTM). The stakes were local. Opponents argued the regional model would have forced viewers to search through programming from multiple towns to find Greenwich content.

The League of Women Voters of Greenwich was among several organizations that filed formal opposition. In a Feb. 26 letter to PURA signed by President Melissa Rose McClammy and Vice President of Advocacy Mary Falvella Browne, the group argued the proposal would weaken transparency and disproportionately harm older residents who depend on cable TV to follow local government.

The LWVG wrote that under a regional schedule, Greenwich meetings would be mixed in with programming from other municipalities, reducing viewership and undermining civic engagement. The group also noted that town officials had publicly warned the petition would cut funding to local operations.

First Selectman Fred Camillo opposed the petition in a Feb. 13 statement, saying the plan would cost Greenwich close to $8,000 in annual funding for its local television operations and strip local control over programming priorities. Selectwoman Rachel Khanna also submitted a letter urging PURA to reject the proposal.

Nutmeg CEO Joanie Wedler said in the petition filing, as reported by the Easton Courier, that the organization was "fully prepared to meet the requirements for operational management of community access in the affected service area." A similar effort to regionalize cable access about 20 years ago was rejected by local communities, the Easton Courier reported.

No response from Nutmeg to the preliminary denial appears in public records. The LWVG said it will continue monitoring the proceeding until the final decision is issued.

Residents can track the case through PURA's docket page for Docket No. 25-09-07, where the status and any final ruling will be posted.