TV Answer Man, we lost the Newsy channel on our Charter Spectrum TV lineup. Do you know what happened to it? Is this another fight over money? — Joe, Tuskegee, Alabama. 

Joe, Charter’s Spectrum TV service is not the only pay TV provider to lose Newsy in the last few weeks. But it has nothing to do with fee fights. Let me explain.

Newsy, a no-frills news channel owned by Scripps, has been pulled from several cable and satellite operators. The reason: On October 1, Scripps plans to make Newsy a digital channel that will be available via TV antennas. The signal will be offered as a sub-channel on Scripps’ ION networks, and some Scripps-owned local stations.

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Scripps believes that Newsy has great potential delivering free 24/7 news to cord-cutters who have abandoned traditional pay TV services, which explains why it no longer wants Newsy on cable and satellite. (YouTube TV lost Newsy as well.)

In that spirit, Newsy is still available as an app on streaming devices, such as Roku. Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV and will continue to be when it becomes a digital channel on October 1.

“Amid an increasingly polarized and divided national climate, Newsy will seize upon this opportunity to serve more Americans seeking quality objective journalism,” Scripps Networks President Lisa Knutson said last April in the company’s announcement regarding the switch to digital.

So, Joe, you can still watch Newsy now, but you’ll have to invest in a streaming device to do so until October 1.

Happy viewing, and stay safe.

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— Phillip Swann