Optimum Customers Set to Lose Knick Games, MSG Networks

A carriage dispute between the New York Knicks' television network and one of the largest cable providers in the Northeast is casting a pall over the New Year's holiday.

Mar 16, 2024; New York City, NY, USA; General view of Madison Square Garden of Madison Square Garden during the national anthem before a game between the Connecticut Huskies and the Marquette Golden Eagles. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

The New York Knicks have been shooting lights out recently. For Optimum customers, however, that might be a bit too literal.

A carriage dispute between MSG Network and Altice USA, the parent company of cable provider Optimum may lead to MSG and its spin-off network MSG SportsNet, going dark as soon as New Year's Day on Wednesday. MSG is the flagship television station of several tri-state area teams, including the Knicks, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, and New York Rangers.

Per a report from Matthew Keys of The Desk, the dispute likely "centers around fees that cable and satellite TV providers are required to pay broadcasters and programmers in exchange for the rights to their channels." Further data from Josh Kosman of the New York Post states that Optimum currently pays $10 per subscriber and that Optimum is looking to reduce that rate.

“Unsurprisingly, Altice continues to confuse its customers so it can get away with charging them more for less," an MSG Network spokesperson said to Rangers insider Larry Brooks of the New York Post. "They just implemented exorbitant price increases, nearly 50 percent for current subscribers and 70% for new subscribers (after expiration of promotional offer) for the package that now includes MSG Networks, and now their customers are at risk of losing coverage of their favorite local sports teams on MSG.”

The dispute comes mere days after the passing of Dolan family patriarch Charles, the founder of Optimum predecessor Cablevision. The Dolan family, now led by Charles' son and Knicks/Rangers owner James, sold Optimum to European conglomerate Altice in September 2017.

Per Keys, Optimum is seeking to place MSG Network on a higher-priced tier, a move that may stem from the rise of the Gotham Sports App, which carries both MSG+, the network's streaming service and the equivalent for YES Network (which carries Brooklyn Nets and New York Yankees games).

“We refuse to allow any entity to force our customers to pay more than they can afford, and with direct-to-consumer options like MSG Plus available on the Gotham Sports app, customers who want to watch it have alternatives so that non-viewers don’t have to pay for content they don’t want,” an Optimum spokesperson told Keys.

If MSG goes dark, a Knicks game would be the first live event to be affected by the outage: on Wednesday, New York will seek a ninth consecutive win against the Utah Jazz (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG). Starting on Monday, MSG viewers were informed of the potential shutdown via a lasting ticker at the bottom of the screen that encouraged them to call their cable provider to keep the network.

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