Due to the ongoing contentious nature of the wire provider’s dispute with MSG, which Optimum TV clients on Long Island are having to look for an alternative delivery system for Knicks games, it is currently difficult to come by. One moment after midnight on New Year’s Day, the MSG supply went dark on Altice’s Optimum systems, and conversations between the RSN and the controller properly came to a halt when the signal was pulled. Fans will be left out in the cold as Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Brunson &amp, Co. seem to stretch their winning streak to 10 before talks are expected to end before the Knicks-Thunder game kicks off Friday evening. While MSG has demonstrated its willingness to sacrifice, offering a reduced vehicle payment and proposing a move to a higher-priced activities level, Altice thus far has refused the show’s overtures. Prior to the validity of its supply package, MSG was accessible via Optimum’s” All TV” item, a 200-plus-channel, sports-heavy stone that costs$ 140 per month—or$ 160 for first-time clients. Other sports nets on the tier include YES Network, SNY, MLB Network, NBA TV and Big Ten Network. The RS N’s$ 180″ Premier TV” suite, which houses GOL TV and IN Sports, might offer MSG a new echelon. In October, MSG re-negotiated a similar tier switcheroo by revising its legacy carriage agreement with Verizon’s FiOS TV. Comcast has pushed the practice of moving RSNs to more expensive tiers, shifting SportsNet Pittsburgh, ROOT Sports Northwest, MASN, and FanDuel Sports channels to its more expensive” Ultimate TV” package in the last year. In October 2021, Comcast and MSG parted ways. Altice closed out the third quarter of 2024 with 1.94 million video subscribers, which marked a 13 % decline compared to the year-ago headcount ( 2.23 million ), a rate of change that’s largely in keeping with greater industry trends. Since the analogous financial period in 2021, the operator has lost 31 % of its video customers, which works out to a net loss of 858, 200 subscribers. Again, that’s in line with national churn rates, which reflect a 30 % drop in video subs over the same period. Broadband services account for the bulk of Altice’s customer relationships, as the company ended the third quarter with 4.04 million internet subs. When MSG and Knicks owner James Dolan had his family’s Cablevision business in his back pocket, a carriage fight on Long Island was never planned. But Dolan closed a deal to sell the carrier to Altice for$ 17.7 billion in 2016, thereby bringing an end to this highly strategic distribution-content arrangement. Dolan’s father, Charles, who founded Cablevision in 1973—just a year after he introduced the world to what was then better known as” Home Box Office “—died last week at the age of 98. An MSG representative described the dispute with Altice as a “pure and simple price gouge” on the part of the operator in a statement released earlier today. The executive continued to point out that MSG is still willing to negotiate in good faith to return our programming to Optimum. The operator continued to claim that the majority of Optimum video customers do not watch MSG programming in what has since become a standard trope during these disputes. As it may, sports fans on the island are now facing the possibility of a new year without having immediate access to the Knicks, Rangers, or Isles. The Gotham Sports streaming option will cost them a churn-conscious$ 41.99 per month or$ 359.99 with an annual subscription if they’re looking for a bespoke solution and would just as soon avoid switching carriers. The short-lived standalone MSG+ platform, which bowed in 2023, was effectively brought to a close with the October launch of the Gotham Sports app. The last time MSG experienced a signal interruption of this magnitude was in 2012, during its 48-day conflict with Time Warner Cable, aside from the Comcast breakup. As was the case with Altice, the TWC-MSG contract expired on New Year’s. More than 1 million subscribers in the New York metro area were prevented from watching Linsanity unfold until the blackout was resolved on February 17 of that year. The difference between the 2011-12 Knicks and this season’s crew is that the current incarnation is arguably a championship-caliber team, whereas the long-ago squad was merely a lot of fun to watch.