MSG Willing to Submit Dish Dispute to Arbitration

Fox calls position "inconsistent"

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/19/2010 9:57:26 PM

The Madison Square Garden Network, which earlier this year was spun off from Cablevision, said Tuesday it is willing to submit its carriage dispute with Dish Network to outside arbitration.

"We are perfectly willing to go to binding arbitration to resolve this dispute with Dish Network," said MSG in a statement.

Spin-off company MSG Media pulled MSG Network and MSG Plus from Dish's channel lineup after no carriage agreement was reached by the deadline midnight Oct. 1.

Fox saw it as a sign of solidarity with Cablevision's call for arbitration for its dispute with Fox over TV stations and cable nets in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia.

"This is the first time MSG has ever suggested being open to binding arbitration with DISH Network or anyone else," said Fox in a statement. "This position is totally inconsistent with their own filings to the FCC and inconsistent with their own actions in denying hundreds of thousands of viewers access to Knicks, Rangers, Nets and Devils games."

"It is stunning to see how the Cablevision family will flip flop on any issue to achieve their transparent goal of making their own subscribers suffer long enough to force politicians to intervene," said Fox.

"MSG has never said we would not submit to binding arbitration," countered MSG.