Family Entertainment TV said it has been launched by Altice USA’s Optimum TV in the New York City market.

Adding Optimum gives the network, owned by Family Broadcasting Co., South Bend, Inc., more than 50 million subscribers.

“We are delighted to partner with Optimum,” said Cara Conte, senior VP of affiliate sales for FETV and its sister network Family Movie Classics. “This launch gives us even greater reach into the vital New York Metropolitan area and increases our distribution base to well over 50 million subscribers.”

Also: Family Entertainment TV Gets Big Boost With Carriage on Comcast

FETV said the launch was well-timed because it is adding Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman to its programming lineup this weekend. The channels will be running a "Family: WeeQUINNed Marathon" on Sept. 24 and 25.

FETV had record ratings in August, recording its highest monthly average ever in total day with total audiences, households, adults 25-54 and adults 35-64. It also had record primetime viewing among adults 25-54 and adults 35-64. 

During August, FETV was ranked 41st among cable networks in total day households among ad-supported cable networks and No. 35 in primetime with households.  ■

Charter Communications and Altice USA have agreed to carry their respective regional news networks, with Charter’s New York-centric Spectrum News NY1 channel available to Altice’s Optimum TV customers and Optimum’s i24NEWS Network debuting across Charter’s footprint today.

Spectrum News NY1 is available to Optimum TV customers in HD in Long Island, Westchester County and the Hudson Valley region in New York; Northern Bergen County and Morris County in New Jersey; and in Stamford and Bridgeport, Conn., as part of a multi-year agreement between the two providers. 

“We are excited about the partnership with Altice USA, and believe it is the perfect complement to NY1’s commitment to deliver news that is essential to the daily lives of all New Yorkers,” Spectrum Networks SVP of operations and integration Dan Ronayne said in a release. “By expanding our distribution, we are now able to deliver NY1’s hyper-local coverage of New York City news, politics and transit beyond the five boroughs.” 

With the deal NY1’s availability expands to more than 3 million Spectrum and Optimum TV households, on channel 98 in most areas. NY1 is also available in HD to Optimum TV customers in the Bronx and Brooklyn on channel 8.

As part of the agreement, Charter will launch Optimum’s i24NEWS across its footprint and News 12 Networks in its Western Connecticut systems. News 12 Networks is currently available to Spectrum TV customers in the New York area. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

MCN Flashback (2015): News12, NY1 Drive 70% of NY-Area News Tune-Ins

According to Altice USA, i24NEWS will initially be available to Charter’s Spectrum Silver customers and will expand across the footprint by Dec. 1.

“We are excited to bring our programming and in-depth news analysis from i24NEWS to Charter’s Spectrum customers,” said i24NEWS CEO Frank Melloul in a statement. “i24NEWS provides unique content that features localized news infused with global conversation and we look forward to becoming a go-to source for domestic and international news for Spectrum customers.”  

i24NEWS launched in the United States in January and is available on Altice USA’s Optimum and Suddenlink systems, Mediacom systems and now Charter’s Spectrum systems.

About 74% of tuning hours in Cablevision Systems and Time Warner Cable homes are done outside of primetime, and the average household tunes to 25 channels per month, with 90% of the tuning hours being consumed on 100 networks, the cable companies found in a new report that tabulates tuning data from the New York DMA.

Those findings, from the first quarterly New York Television Audience Insights Report, is based on census-level audience tuning data from more than 3.5 million homes across more than 300 common networks, representing nearly half of the New York DMA and data that can’t be gleaned from traditional measurement methods, the companiess said.

The New York Television Audience Insights Report is based on aggregated data from both service providers that have been analyzed using advanced analytic capabilities.

Among the findings -- with new, more granular insights for marketers that are targeting the influential DMA -- are that roughly 21% of local news tuning (Monday through Friday, 6-9 a.m.) across broadcast and local cable origination stations is exclusively on News 12 and NY1, the cable news channels owned and operated by Cablevision and Time Warner Cable, respectively.

“Since introducing our census-level audience data early last year, we have seen significant growth in demand for more granular audience measurement and analytics,” Ben Tatta, president of Cablevision Media Sales, said in a statement. “We are delighted to work with Time Warner Cable to provide the advertising community more comprehensive and actionable insights for TV audiences and viewership in the New York market.”

“TWC Media is proud to partner with Cablevision on this initiative. In addition to providing TV Tribes analysis of diverse viewing patterns, we can now offer our clients more precise data within the NY DMA,” added Joan Gillman, chief operating officer and executive vice president, Time Warner Cable Media. “As viewing habits continue to evolve, our clients need increasingly sophisticated data and analytics to inform their marketing decisions.”