One Sports Fan’s Lament

By Kent Gibbons -- Multichannel News, 2/6/2012 12:01:00 AM

It’s been a little tough being a football Giants and Knicks fan in New York these days if you’re also a Time Warner Cable subscriber (as I am).

Being a Giants fan has been great overall during the team’s late-season and playoff run. And there’s been no shortage of Giants coverage on local TV and ESPN’s outlets.

But this time of year, I miss being able to watch NFL Network fare — when the Giants are in the playoff s. As National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell pointed out last Friday, the network has just two cable holdouts: TWC and Cablevision Systems.

Small-cable champion Matt Polka, lays out the case for the NFL costing all pay TV viewers too much.

Rather than singling out football and ESPN, though, start counting up the cost for all the almost innumerable sports channels.

Contributor Kevin Czerwinski catches us up on the imminent arrivals of new regional channels all across the West. Note: Th ey won’t be carried for free.

As for the National Basketball Association’s Knicks, their games on MSG and MSG Plus are off Time Warner Cable.

MSG says TWC’s investment in local sports, including two new regional networks to show Los Angeles Lakers’ NBA games, is a good reason for the MSO to keep MSG’s games on in New York.

TWC says MSG, coming off the NBA’s labor settlement, wants to jack up fees.

Like Polka, I hope someone comes up with a solution that keeps me happy as a sports fan and as a consumer.

I’ll be a lot happier, though, if the Giants won yesterday.