As the calendar turned from 2024 to 2025, Optimum cable service pulled the plug on MSG Networks. Optimum customers in the New York area will now need to look elsewhere to watch the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, and New Jersey Devils.
Reports surfaced earlier this week of a dispute between Altice USA, the parent company of Optimum, and MSG Networks. Per usual, the dispute seems to be over the network’s tiering in Optimum’s cable packages and what price the TV provider will pay MSG per subscriber.
Altice would like to place MSG Networks on a more premium and expensive tier, rather than the base tier where the channel resided until going dark. Naturally, MSG Networks is resistant to that change as it would cut its subscriber base considerably, and therefore the carriage fees it collects from Optimum.
According to a source familiar with negotiations, Altice has rejected multiple proposals from MSG Networks that would have allowed the channel to remain on the air as the two sides continue negotiations. This type of extension is commonplace during carriage disputes when two sides are negotiating a new deal in good faith. When such an extension isn’t reached, it typically signals two sides that are far apart. In other words, it doesn’t seem like this dispute will be resolved anytime soon.
A source also suggests that MSG Networks was willing to accept a lower carriage fee from Altice than it did in 2024, a proposal that was also declined by the TV provider.
In a statement, Optimum suggests that MSG has likewise declined offers that would pay the network its proposed rates but places it on a higher tier. The television provider would like to offer customers optionality in which channels they pay for and which they don’t.
Given MSG Networks’ seeming flexibility on price, one could presume the crux of the issue remains tiering. MSG is willing to accept a lower price to stay on Optimum’s base tier, while Altice has drawn a firm line that the networks must be placed in a more premium package.
Optimum customers that would like to continue to receive MSG Networks’ programming can do so, but at a price. The network offers a direct-to-consumer streaming service, MSG+, for $30 per month. In an effort to help customers impacted by the blackouts, Optimum is offering to “help offset and defray the costs” of an MSG+ subscription, though exact details of that arrangement were not immediately available in the company’s press release.
