Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks drives to the basket during the game against the Indiana Pacers during Round 2 Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Playoffs on May 6, 2024 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.
Nathaniel S. Butler | National Basketball Association | Getty Images
Altice USA customers lost access to MSG Networks early Wednesday due to a carriage dispute between the cable TV operator and James Dolan’s regional sports channels.
Customers of Altice USA’s Optimum cable TV service lost access to the NBA’s New York Knicks and the NHL’s New York Rangers, New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils early Wednesday. The blackout comes as the Knicks are on an eight-game win streak and are slated to play Wednesday evening.
Negotiations between Altice USA and MSG Networks broke down due to a dispute over fees — often the case in these discussions. The blackout shows the continuing struggles for regional sports networks as customers leave the cable TV bundle at a fast clip, and operators push back on high fees.
Both Altice USA and MSG Networks each issued statements early Wednesday regarding the dispute.
“We offered Altice a number of fair and reasonable proposals that called for Altice to pay us less than last year,” according to a MSG Networks statement. “Altice rejected all of them, including our offer to keep MSG Networks on the air while we continued to try to reach a deal. We remain ready to negotiate in good faith.”
However, Altice USA said in a statement that “MSG Networks is demanding exorbitant programming fees – which could raise our customers’ cable bills – and, to add insult to injury, MSG Networks is requiring us to make their channels available to the vast majority of Optimum video subscribers, which would force customers to pay for content they do not to watch.”
Altice USA noted MSG Networks’ streaming options for customers that still want access to their teams.
New York-based Altice USA had more than 1.9 million residential cable TV customers as of Sept. 30, after losing about 77,000 compared to the same quarter in the previous year.
The regional sports networks business has been severely affected by the consumer switch from traditional cable TV bundles to streaming options. In 2024 Diamond Sports, the owner of the biggest portfolio of these networks, won court approval to exit bankruptcy protection after it was plagued by the same headwinds.
Like other regional sports networks, MSG Networks launched a streaming option in 2023 priced at $29.99 a month. In 2024 MSG Networks teamed up with the YES Network, which features local games for the New York Yankees, for a combined offering called the Gotham Sports app, which costs $359.99 annually or $41.99 a month.
The high prices of these streaming options show the regional sports networks must be careful not to further disrupt the cable TV model and breach contracts with distributors. These contracts with cable TV operators help support the billions of dollars in fees the networks pay professional sports teams to air their games.
