New year, new carriage dispute. A schism has erupted between cable distributor Optimum and MSG Network, the regional sports network (RSN) that offers Buffalo Sabres, New Jersey Devils, New York Knicks, New York Islanders, and New York Rangers games to customers in the home markets of those teams. MSG has been blacked out on Optimum since the start of 2025, and both sides are laying the blame at the other’s feet.

Key Details:

• Optimum says it agreed to pay higher carriage fees if it could package MSG differently.
• MSG says it provided Optimum with several “fair and reasonable” offers.
• New York legislators are working with both sides to try to bridge the gap.

In a press release following the New York-focused sports channel being pulled from the cable service, Optimum used words like “unfair” and “exorbitant” to describe MSG’s demands for higher carriage fees. The cable company said it was prepared to pay more for the channels, but wanted to package MSG differently.

“Optimum offered to absorb their egregious price demands if we could package MSG Networks in a way that would give more flexibility and control to our customers, so that fans could continue to watch and pay for their content while non-viewers would not be forced to pay for what they don’t watch,” Optimum said in a statement. “MSG Networks said no and refused multiple offers from us to reach a deal.”

Most distributors are attempting to shift RSNs like MSG to higher-priced channel tiers, in order to keep the price down for customers who opt to not have access to sports channels. Comcast insisted that it be allowed to move RSNs from Main Street Sports Group — formerly Diamond Sports Group — to a more expensive plan before ending a carriage dispute with that company.

MSG, meanwhile, says it has made multiple “fair and reasonable” proposals to Optimum, some of which would have allowed the cabler to pay less for its channel than it did last year. It also says that thanks to the launch of new Optimum packages, viewers now have to pay at least $160 per month to watch MSG — 70% more than they formerly had to shell out.

The two sides are continuing to trade barbs in the press, insisting that the other’s statistics lack key context. The dispute is of great importance to New York sports fans, and now local politicians are trying to lend a hand to get the channel back on Optimum airwaves.

Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages of Nassau County’s 22nd Assembly District in Long Island and state senator Jamaal Bailey of The Bronx and Westchester County, are calling on Optimum and MSG to settle the dispute as soon as possible. The two are in talks with both companies about hashing out the dustup as quickly as possible.

“Sports is the world’s greatest social currency,” Bailey told Sportico in an interview. “So when people are facing trying times, they want to sit down in front of their TV for a couple of hours, and they want to watch their team. In addition to me being a ridiculously obsessed Knicks fan who’s also an Optimum customer, I thought it was important to jump in for the constituency, for myself and for everybody.”

Optimum’s parent company Altice finished the third quarter of 2024 with 1.94 million video customers, many of whom are affected by the blackout of MSG. Only time will tell when the channel will be restored, and there will likely be more heated rhetoric between the two companies before it’s all said and done.