BREAKING NEWS: Cox Communications is eliminating WPIX from the channel line-up of its Meriden system, which also includes subscribers in Cheshire and Southington.

Cox's Meriden system subscribers have not had access to the channel since last Friday when Cablevision blacked out WPIX's feed in a dispute with the New York City-base television station's owner, Tribune Co., over retransmission fees. Cablevision's Connecticut systems and Cox share a line use to bring WPIX's retransmission into the state and so Cox's Meriden customers were affected as a result.

A Cox regional spokeswoman, Dana Alexander Nolfe, had told the New Haven Register last Friday that Cox was working to rectify the problem. But on Wednesday, an angry subscriber from Meriden received this e-mail from a customer service representative at the company's New England headquarters, which is based in Rhode Island:                                                              

"Thank you for your recent e-mail to Cox regarding general questions for community outreach.

We do apologize for the inconvenience this may cause. At this time, Cox has decided to remove WPIX-11 from the channel lineup. Rather than find an alternative way to receive the signal, we've opted to discontinue the channel so that we can use the bandwidth to increase Internet speeds and add future HDTV content."

A call was placed to Nolfe shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday after the newspaper was made aware of the e-mail an hour or so earlier. In the meantime, I'd like to know what Cox's Meriden customers think of the company's actions.

Submit your comments to this blog or e-mail them to me at lturmelle@nhregister.com