Time Warner Cable: MSG Offered No 'Credible Explanation' for License Fee Hike

MSO offers subscribers January freeview of sports package, as two RSNs are in dark

By Mike Reynolds, Multichannel News -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/1/2012 1:20:03 PM

Time Warner Cable, maintaining that a deal had been in reach before the programmer demanded a "whopping" increase and refused to negotiate further, is offering its subscribers a month-long freeview of its sports package in the wake of the removal of MSG and MSG Plus from its lineup.

The nation's No. 2 cable operator and MSG Media couldn't reach a new license fee agreement as their contract expired at midnight on Jan. 1 and the two regional sports networks, which carry New York Knicks NBA games, as well as the NHL's New York Rangers and Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres, are not currently available to Time Warner Cable's 2.3 million video customers in the New York DMA and in upstate New York.

"Despite agreeing to the asked for 6.5% price increase on rates that MSG themselves deemed as fair market rates just last year, MSG reneged on the deal and instead, demanded a whopping 53% increase and refused to negotiate further," Mike Angus, senior vice president, content acquisition, for Time Warner Cable, in a statement.

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