Syracuse (WSYR-TV) -- Come the new year, Knicks and New York hockey fans may not be able to watch each and every game. There’s a chance Time Warner Cable will not carry the MSG Network after Saturday night if the two can not agree on a new contract.
Negotiations don’t look too good right now. The MSG Network told NewsChannel 9 there are no planned meetings between the two parties over the next couple of days.
The current contract was drafted back in 2005 and expires at midnight on January 1. If the two sides stand their ground, it’ll mean the loss of some pretty popular games in both the NBA and NHL.
Time Warner subscribers wanting to see every shot by Carmello Anthony and every slap shot by a New York hockey team may have to look elsewhere.
The cable company and MSG have been negotiating a new contract for years and its still come down to the eleventh hour to strike a deal.
MSG Media issued the following statement concerning their contract negotiations with Time Warner: “Time Warner Cable has rejected every one of our fair proposals for nearly two years, and are unwilling to value our programming in the same manner as other distributors.”
MSG says it’s not asking any more from Time Warner than any other cable provider, but Time Warner says it’s asking too much.
Beside a 53 percent increase, Time Warner says it’s being asked to carry Fuse, a music network only viewed by a small portion of customers.
A spokesperson for Time Warner says the two parties were close to an agreement for a 6.5 percent increase in price, but MSG backed out when Time Warner refused to pay millions for the lightly-viewed Fuse.
For the remainder of the season, Time Warner says about 40 percent of Knicks games, 30 percent of Rangers games and 20 percent of Sabres games will still be available on other channels. But if you’re the type of fan that likes to see every last shot, you could be out of luck.
In case you're considering a switch in providers: MSG is not offered on Dish Network, but is offered on DIRECTV and Verizon FiOS.
