The New York Knicks season starts soon, but Madison Square Garden and Comcast have not come to an agreement on broadcasting the MSG Network.
For the first time in a while, New York Knicks fans are excited to watch their team play. But fans who have Comcast as their provider and live in Connecticut or New Jersey will not catch any of the Madison Square Garden Network games for some time, or potentially the entire season.
As of now, we don’t know where and if Comcast will broadcast the MSG Network, and as a result, the Knicks, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, and New Jersey Devils games will not be aired (thankfully, Rugby United New York finished their season). But for many Knicks fans, this puts them in a bind in particular because 70 of the 82 games will be broadcasted on MSG Networks, while the rest will be nationally televised games.
Now both companies did make statements.
“Right when fans are looking forward to the start of the NBA and NHL seasons, Comcast dropped MSG Networks to try to force us to accept terms they’d never agree to for their own regional sports networks, including SNY in New York. They rejected proposals that are consistent with their current deal and deals we have with other major providers, as well as our offer to keep our programming on air under existing terms so we could continue to work on a longer-term agreement. And even though they’ve taken away hundreds of live Knicks, Devils, Rangers and Islanders games, they continue to charge Xfinity customers the same monthly rate – in addition to a regional sports fee that they increased 22% in January to more than $10 per month. Comcast’s refusal to negotiate is deeply disappointing.” – Madison Square Garden
“We don’t believe that our customers should have to pay the millions of dollars in fees that MSG is demanding for some of the most expensive sports content in the country with extremely low viewership in our markets. According to our data, customer viewership of the MSG networks is virtually non-existent. Almost 95% of all customers who received MSG over the past year did not watch more than 10 of the approximately 240 games it broadcast. Additionally, up to 80% of customers didn’t watch any MSG content at all each month in that timeframe. We have successfully negotiated thousands of agreements with programmers and reached agreements in almost every instance and are disappointed that MSG decided to pull their content rather than reach a fair agreement.” – Comcast
MSG makes a valid point that it’s unfair for Comcast to continue to charge high rates while reducing its services. Although Comcast makes a strong case with the low numbers, the small percentage they cite most likely consists of diehard fans who bleed orange and blue and just want to watch their team (we don’t know what percent of the 5% of viewers were Knicks fans, but based on last season’s excitement I am guessing it’s a good amount).
So what does this mean for the Tri-State area? Well, they are not completely out of luck, as there are other providers where Knicks fans can watch the games while Comcast and Madison Square Garden get things situated.
One option for fans is to change to another cable provider in the area (Verizon Fios, Spectrum, or Optimum). Yet, that may not be ideal because fans may not want to leave Comcast, or they may not have the option to do so. Further, some may not want to pay more money or sign another long-term contract with another cable provider.
Another alternative is for fans to subscribe to fuboTV, which is an internet streaming television service. Unlike NBA League Pass, they won’t blackout games in the local area because they have agreements to broadcast local channels. That being said, this is also an added-on service.
It’s unfortunate that Knicks fans in these regions face the risk of not being able to watch their team in the comfort of their own home, or paying more to do so. Especially since this is one of the most anticipated seasons in a long time.
But if you are a fan impacted by Comcast not hosting the MSG Network, you can make your voice heard by going to keepmsg.com.
Also, you know that you can always tune into Knicks Fan TV to catch the recap of the games with breakdowns and analysis.
Stay tuned to KnicksFanTV.com for the latest Knicks news, rumors, and recaps heading into the regular season. Also, make sure to check out CP, JD, CK2K, and Alex Trataros predict various Knicks lineups!
