Stop threatening to cut local stations

Totally agree. I will cut my ties with Xfinity. 

Is it "Comcast is at it again threatening to take away local programming," or, "A local station is threatening to refuse to allow Comcast to air it unless Comcast gives in to the station's demands for an increase in what it charges per customer"?

Maybe if you could tell us the station's call letters, we could get a better idea of just what is happening. Usually, when this happens, it is one or more of a network's "owned and operated" stations that are involved. A few decades ago, a small cable company north of San Francisco got into a fight with whoever owned ABC and ESPN at the time (it was pre-Disney); I think it was over the company being strongarmed into removing a channel so there would be room for ESPN2. When the company refused, ABC pulled its local ABC affiliate, which was owned by ABC, from the company for almost a year.

There was a programming alert on WFFF FOX44 (Burlington, VT) last night saying that Comcast is threatening to take away that channel. It’s not there today, so I assume this issue has been resolved

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We all get ripped off by Comcast anyhow we pay for say 100 or more channels and the same channels are counted  3 or four times so we really aren't getting what we pay four.

If they cut local stations, I will leave Xfinity as well.  There are plenty of alternative carriers that include local stations.

If WKRN is using its viewers to negotiate for them by saying Comcast is threatening to remove it from the platform, that is underhanded and deceptive. If Comcast is using its monopoly to threaten WKRN, that's also wrong. What's the real story?

The affiliate owner, at least in our service area, is Nexstar. They are in retransmission (carriage) negotiations with Comcast and, as usual, the owner is asking for more money than Comcast wants to pay. So the owner is using the customer base as a bargaining chip to force Comcast to meet their demands. If they are not met, Nexstar will pull the network feed, not Comcast, and CBS, as well as its substations and affiliate stations will go dark until the contract is agreed upon. It's a common tactic that thy affiliate owners do when it comes time to renegotiate these long term agreements. Usually the owner just runs a scroll at the bottom of the screen but this time they are showing a slick ad to get the customer's attention and have them pressure Comcast with complaints.

I totally agree.  If they drop my locsl CBS station or any other local channel , then I will leave Comcast. 

Do not terminate Sacramento channel KTXL.  You terminate that station I terminate Comcast.

It bears repeating here. The two biggest affiliate owners in the country are Sinclair Broadcasting and Nexstar Media. Between the two of them, they own virtually all of the local affiliated stations (and their subs like Ion Television, MeTV, etc). CBS is owned by CBS/Viacom. ABC is owned by Disney Corp., etc. Because there are hundreds and hundreds of local stations that makes it almost impossible for the parent companies to own and manage all of the stations. So the affiliate owners come in and purchase the local affiliates and run them. They also purchase the RSN's, (Regional Sports Networks). They then bundle up all of the local stations and RSN's for the various major service areas and enter into a contractual agreement with the providers so that they, the providers, can provide local television and network broadcast/sports programming. The cost to the providers is called retransmission or carriage fees. These contracts are long term (10 years or longer in some cases). When it comes time to re-negotiate the contracts, the affiliate owners ask for more money, usually substantially more. The providers don't want to pay what the owners want so negotiations begin. Both have shareholders that they need to satisfy. The affiliate owners threaten to pull their network feeds if they don't get what they want, which is what is happening now with CBS and Comcast, and blame the content provider for the loss of the station. They do this by running scrolls at the top or bottom on the screen or, in this case, actually produce slick ads that make the provider look like the bad guy, and ask the customers to call and complain to Comcast. Basically they are using the customer as a tool to harass and force the provider to give in to the owners demands. Another common tactic of the affiliate owners is to pull their network feed when it's the most inconvenient time for the customer, like during playoff games for different sports. However, that doesn't mean that Comcast is blameless because they're not. They have shareholders, profit margins, and fat bonuses to pay executives so it comes down to money, as always.

You can always switch to another provider but eventually they too will enter into carriage fee negotiations so you may end up going thru the same thing again a few years down the road. Another example is OAN and/or Newsmax. Both of those privately owned stations were asking for money because they were and are losing money. Some of the content providers didn't want to pay, stood steadfast, and those stations were dropped. Business plain and simple. But a lot of people saw it as some big censoring issue which it really wasn't.

It is a tactic for re-negotiating fees/costs of carrying those channels.  They threaten to drop them to get them to not raise their prices (Comcast pays most of the channels a fee to carry them). The real truth is that they still need each other.  As far as your cable prices going up, drop into a local store and ask them if they will give you a special price for 2 or 3 years if you sign a contract and you will probably be able to expand/upgrade your cable and lower the price you are currently paying.  In 2 or 3 years when your contract expires... do it again.  I even bought their "security" system once in order to DROP my bill $50.  I already had a system so I never used theirs. 

I renew my contract with Comcast every October, before the new pricing scheme goes into effect. I lowered my speeds to save money from 800 to 600. Saved money but in November Comcast boosted my speeds back up to 800 at no additional cost and I typically get about 20% more in speeds.

All providers raise prices one way or another. They have all kinds of reasons for doing so but one of the main reasons is to offset these enormous carriage fee contracts with the affiliates. 

My latest bill details changes coming in 2023 which includes losing 2 local channels come February 1st. 2 of the channels I watch the most which I can get with an antenna because I know many in my neighborhood who do that.  And of course rates are going up but I have less stations. Cutting all ties with Comcast including internet. Calling the other area internet provider tomorrow to begin service. As far as cable TV, I'll survive without it. Goodbye Comcast.

Yep. The only way to "guarantee" local stations is to use an antenna. And if you have a tv with an ATSC 3.0 tuner, you can get 4k and HD audio. We did that for over 30 years (ATSC 2.0) until we moved into an area where OTA was just not possible. All providers guarantee tv service if you subscribe to that package but they don't guarantee specific stations for the very reason of carriage agreements. It's all in the small print. Comcast internet for us has always been reliable and fast (but I use my own equipment).