CTKnicksfan
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http://www.nypost.com/sports/28423.htm
August 2, 2004 -- Once again, a dispute with Cablevision has resulted in the removal of valued sports programming from a competing local cable system. As of yesterday, MSG/FSN has been dropped from Time-Warner's two million households. But could it be that Cablevision, the original Evil Empire, has, at long last, something of a legit position?
The deal Cablevision sought with T-W would provide a slight increase for MSG/FSN programming, yet would cost T-W less than what it pays for YES.
MSG/FSN may be down inventory with the loss of the Yanks and Nets, but it still has the Mets, Knicks, Liberty, Rangers, Islanders, Devils, MetroStars and lots of college sports. YES has just the Yanks, Nets and some college stuff.
Then again, Cablevision has long hollered that sports are so expensive that it must pass the cost to subscribers. But the loss of such programming is never reflected in monthly subscriber fees. And Cablevision, which owns the Garden, doesn't pay rights fees for the Knicks and Rangers.
In fact, this latest cable dispute might have been averted had an Attorney General's office, a couple of years ago, asked Cablevision to explain why, upon the loss of wildly expensive Yankee rights, it gave back pennies to subscribers for what it had charged dollars. Phil Mushnick
The best point this article makes and relevant to the discussion is that TW customers aren't going to see any reduction in their bills as a result of NOT carrying MSG/FSN. It's ok to cut programming if it becomes too expensive, that's a legit business decision but to charge the same rates as previous for a lesser programming package is unfair. I'm a Comcast customer here in CT, so I didn't miss out on YES that first year they had the dispute, but CVC had so many defections to Direct TV that they were forced back to the negotiating table and basically had to accept the deal the Yankees were offering, $2/subscriber. I hope the same fate awaits TW in their attempt to be cheap with their customers. But, do the Knicks/Rangers fan bases with TW have the clout that Yankees fans had w cablevision? Not likely.
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