Why New York Sports Fans Won’t See a Standalone MSG Streaming Service

New York sports fans are stuck in the middle of a carriage dispute. Comcast and MSG Networks failed to reach a contract agreement, so cable subscribers will need another option to watch the channel until the situation is resolved. That’s tough news for fans of the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, and New York Red Bulls

According to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, Comcast is willing to play chicken with its users over the outage. On The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast, Ourand explained why MSG is unlikely to offer a standalone streaming option in response.

“MSG can go direct-to-consumer tomorrow, but if it does that, it’s going to make a lot less money,” Ourand said. “Nobody’s going to subscribe to an MSG streaming service in the summer. They have no summer sports. Let’s say you’re a Rangers fan and they start out winless through December. All sudden you’re there for two months.

The whole beauty of the RSN business as a business study is that 20% of the cable audience were watching that RSN but it was paid for by 100% of the subscribers, so your proverbial grandmother down the street who would never watch a sporting event was paying the same amount as you, who’s a big sports fan. And so that’s how they made all their money.”

When asked about launching a direct-to-consumer service in February, MSG’s VP of Business Affairs, Adam Levine said:

“We see the media landscape continuing to evolve. We’re continuing to monitor developments and consumer behavior. Of course, we believe live local professional sports rights are unique and highly valuable asset, and there are always going to be new and innovative potential incremental offering.”

He continued: “We said before, we have the flexibility to do a direct-to-consumer offering, if that’s what we think ultimately makes sense. I don’t think we have anything to announce now about the time line for whether we will or won’t offer such a product. It’s an intriguing option for us down the road. It’s something we’ll continue to evaluate.”

Comcast previously had an 18-month blackout in a dispute with YES Network, which carries New York Yankees games. That lasted from mid-2015 to early 2017. But Ourand explained that YES was owned by FOX, which had significantly greater leverage in negotiations because of their other channels. As MSG is a standalone operation, its sole audience is sports fans.

If you are a Comcast customer who wants to watch MSG and MSG+ – how can you stream them? Fortunately, there are two options - both of which are available month-to-month, with no contracts.

For $64.99 a month, after a 7-Day Free Trial, fuboTV offers MSG as part of their base plan. MSG and MSG+ are also available with DIRECTV STREAM “Choice Plan”, which is available for $84.99 a month, which you can try for 14-Days Risk Free.

Both services also offer SportsNet NY in New York, but only DIRECTV STREAM carries YES Network.

MSG is not available on YouTube TV, Sling TV, or Hulu Live TV. You also can’t use out-of-market packages like NHL.TV, which is now included in ESPN+, or NBA League Pass. Locally televised games will be blacked out by those out-of-market services.

With fuboTV and DIRECTV STREAM, you will also get additional sports channels.

Both services include ESPN, which nationally televise NBA and NHL games, while TNT is available on DIRECTV STREAM. fuboTV “Sports Plus” Add-On will give you NBA TV and NHL Network, in addition to NFL RedZone. DIRECTV STREAM “Choice” Plan includes NBA TV for no extra charge, NHL Network is included in their $94.99 a month “Premier” Plan.