Altice pulls plug on MSG Networks as carriage dispute remains unresolved

MSG Networks went dark on Altice’s Optimum TV service as the new year began at midnight, the result of a carriage dispute between the two companies.

Barring an agreement during the day on Wednesday, homes that subscribe to Optimum will not be able to watch the Knicks try to stretch their winning streak to nine when they host the Jazz on Wednesday night.

The MSG signal went black at about 12:01 a.m., as an episode of the sitcom “Brockmire” was beginning to air.

MSG also carries the games of all three metropolitan-area NHL teams. The Rangers and Islanders play on Thursday night, both at home.

Comcast dropped MSG more than three years ago, affecting homes in New Jersey and Connecticut. But losing Altice, the dominant cable company on Long Island, represents a far greater blow to MSG’s overall distribution.

A carriage dispute is a disagreement over compensation between the distributor, which is Altice, to carry a channel from the provider, which is MSG Networks.

Both sides have issued statements accusing the other of being unreasonable, with the issues centered on pricing and tiers, as is usually the case.

Fans who subscribe to Optimum can order MSG from the Gotham Sports app for $29.95 a month. Single games can be ordered for $9.95.

Verizon Fios, DirecTV, DirecTV Stream and fuboTV carry MSG within Altice’s geographical footprint.

MSG issued a statement that read:

“As a last-ditch effort to save their struggling business at the expense of subscribers, Altice is trying to charge their customers more and give them less. They just raised prices – nearly 50% for current Optimum subscribers and 70% for new Optimum subscribers (after expiration of a promotional offer) for the package that had included MSG Networks – and cut access to the Knicks, Rangers, Islanders, Devils and more on MSG Networks.

“We offered Altice a number of fair and reasonable proposals that called for Altice to pay us less than last year. 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.”

MSG offered to make itself available on a higher, more expensive tier in seeking a solution. MSG said its offer to Altice included “the same fair and reasonable terms that other major providers accepted.”

On Monday night, Altice issued a statement that read in part, “

“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.

“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.”

Sports programming is the most expensive in television, making it a focal point in the battle to keep costs under control.

With both regional sports networks such as MSG and cable companies such as Altice struggling in an era of increasing options outside the traditional cable bundle, the pressure on all sides of the business has grown.

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.