tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

Time Warner Cable Black Outs NY

Since January 1, 2012, Time Warner Cable (TWC) subscribers have been denied access to Madison Square Garden (MSG) programming which includes: NY Knicks, NY Rangers, NY Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres games. Fans of these respective teams are unable to follow their favorites in the comfort of their own homes and must either find an establishment that has DirecTV or subscribe to DirecTV. For full disclosure let me say that I am a DirecTV subscriber and have been one since 1998 so this dispute between TWC and MSG does not impact me in the least. But it does impact hundreds of thousands of fans all across New York State.

Wednesday Mike Francesa had representatives from the two companies on his show and it was evident that if blame needs to be placed it lies with TWC. It would be in MSG's best interest to have these games broadcasted because as you know the Knicks and the Rangers are owned by MSG. It was reported the ratings for Knicks games are up 70% over last year and that is not counting the recent Jeremy Lin success story. The ratings for the Eastern Conference leading Rangers are up 10% over last year and the Buffalo Sabres have the best television ratings of any American based NHL team. So why is TWC balking at paying what other providers are paying for MSG??

In the end, once again the sports fans get screwed. What I would like to know is if TWC does not come to an agreement with MSG, will TWC subscribers receive a rebate??? The answer is no and we all know that. This whole situation is why I dumped cable many years ago. What I like about DirecTV is that I pay for what I want where as cable you pretty much have little choice. I have heard that in Western New York, DirecTV has brought in technicians from Pennsylvania because they cannot keep up with the demand for new installations as a result of people switching over from TWC. Unfortunately, there are many people who live in apartment or condominium complexes that prohibit satellite dishes from being installed so those people are held hostage by TWC.

A follower of this blog @TRestaino has started a campaign to apply pressure on TWC by asking people to send 10 tweets at 10am for the next 8 days using #timewarner to bring attention to this situation. If you are effected what do you have to lose by participating. Even if you are not effected, let's try to bring this thing to a head for those sports fans effected.