Knicks, Rangers Games at Risk In New Year’s Carriage Standoff Between MSG, Optimum

It may not be a happy New Year for New York Knicks and New York Rangers fans, as a carriage dispute between MSG Networks and the cable operator Optimum could see games go dark come 2025.

Optimum, the pay-TV brand of Altice, operates in most of the New York City suburbs and in parts of the city itself. MSG Networks, which is part of Sphere Entertainment, televises the games of the NBA’s Knicks, as well as the Rangers, Islanders, and Devils in the NHL. The blackout risk comes in the middle of the NHL and NBA seasons, and with the Knicks on a winning streak.

Notably, MSG Networks and the Yankees’ YES Network launched an app called Gotham Sports earlier this year that made games available directly to consumers in one place. Optimum is advising customers that they can switch to that streaming option if there is a blackout.

“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 may not want to watch,” an Optimum spokesperson said in a statement. 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+ 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.”

“Despite our good faith efforts, Altice refuses to offer anything close to market terms, making it impossible for us to agree to their unreasonable demands,” an MSG Networks spokesperson says. “Their marketing slogan is ‘Where Local is Big Time,’ but they may deprive Optimum subscribers of their favorite sports teams shortly when their contract expires – there’s nothing optimal or local about that.”  

An MSG Networks source said that the company offered Altice the same deal that it made with a much larger pay-TV company just a few months ago, and that the company was offering more flexible packaging arrangements for its channels.

Carriage disputes have picked up in recent years as the rise of streaming forces pay-TV providers to reevaluate their value propositions. RSNs have been particularly at risk, given their high prices and relatively limited appeal to hardcore sports fans.

Many RSNs have begun to offer streaming alternatives to fans who have cut the cord, or who see their channels dropped by their provider. Many providers have sought to move RSNs from basic cable packages to more premium tiers in an effort to lower costs for price-sensitive customers, while seeking to more fully monetize sports fans.