Happy New Year hockey fans! It might not be a happy start to 2025 for New York hockey fans. No, we’re not talking about New Jersey Devils fans watching their team get shut out in the only game scheduled for January 1st. While a big sparkling ball was being dropped in Manhattan hockey broadcasts were bring dropped from homes in the tri-state area.
MSG Networks, the regional sports network that’s home to the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, and New Jersey Devils, were dropped from Cablevision/Optimum cable almost as soon as the new year rang in. That also means Optimum subscribers lost access to MSG networks content on the Gotham Sports app, their digital platform shared with fellow New York area regional sports network YES network. Optimum has about 1 million subscribers in the NYC area and some of those customers are in an area where Optimum is their only cable option, as opposed to Fios, Spectrum, etc.
The dispute largely centers on the fees cable companies pay to networks for the right to broadcast their content. MSG says that Optimum is seeking a discount on the current rate they pay while wanting to move their content to a “higher priced tier”. Optimum contents that since MSG content is now available to non-subscribers via the Gotham Sports App, their customers shouldn’t pay any more. Gotham Sports App is available to customers without a cable subscription for $29.99 a month to access MSG Networks content. Gotham Sports replaced their previous MSG GO app.
The New York Post fully went down the mildly fascinating rabbit hole of implications for this move. A rival regional sports network executive told the Post dropping an RSN could lost 5 percent of their customer base, but increase revenue by 20 percent due to the fees paid. Fully dropping MSG from Optimum could push MSG to bankruptcy. The network is reportedly paying $187 million to broadcast Knicks and Rangers games (it wasn’t specified if that fee included Devils and Islanders games) in 2025 and bankruptcy could renegotiate that deal.
Adding irony to injury is that Rangers owner Tim Dolan used to own Cablevision/Optimum before being sold to Altice in 2017. The Post reports that a MSG Network bankruptcy wouldn’t personally hurt Dolan or his owned Rangers since the network were spun off into “Sphere Entertainment” following his involvement in building the Las Vegas Sphere and expanding that business in a move we speculated about some time ago.
A fourth NHL team, the Buffalo Sabres, is also broadcast by another MSG channel “MSG Western New York”. Since Optimum is not available in Western New York, their broadcasts are unaffected. “MSG Western New York” is a joint venture between MSG Network and the Terry Pegula controlled Hockey Western New York LLC.
MSG Networks has been in a similar dispute with fellow cable provider Spectrum for two years at this point. Optimum has far more subscribers in MSG Networks’ main area that Spectrum which you would think would lend a sense of urgency to both parties getting this resolved quickly. While only mentioning the Knicks, MSG Networks posted a short video on Twitter of famous comedian Tracey Morgan comically responding to the news. With the amount of celebrity Rangers fans maybe we’ll see a hockey centered one soon. The two Twitter accounts for MSG Networks and Optimum were seen trading Twitter barbs on Thursday night.
Optimum is offering a discount for their customers who sign up for Tubi to access MSG Network content. MSG Networks set up a “Keep MSG” webpage encouraging Optimum customers to contact Optimum in a multitude of ways to voice their displeasure. The web page ends with the somewhat ominous message “Don’t miss your favorite teams! Switch now!”