MSG, TWC Stop the ‘Lin-sanity’

Seven-Week Carriage Dispute Is Settled After Pressure From N.Y. Politicos

By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 2/20/2012 12:01:00 AM

After weeks of wrangling, the license-fee dispute between MSG Media and Time Warner Cable that kept two regional sports networks dark on the MSO’s systems since Jan. 1 has been resolved.

The new agreement, struck late Friday (Feb. 17), ended the 48-day impasse and made that evening’s New York Knicks-New Orleans Hornets telecast on MSG available to Time Warner Cable subscribers. Deal terms, which were still being finalized, could not be ascertained by press time.

MSG and sister service MSG Plus had remained dark on Time Warner Cable systems in 2012 after the parties couldn’t reach a new deal and the RSNs pulled their signals on Jan. 1 from the nation’s No. 2 cable operator, which counts some 2.3 million subscribers in the state, including 1.1 million in New York City.

Between them, MSG and MSG Plus hold local TV rights to the National Basketball Association’s Knicks and a quartet of National Hockey League franchises: the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres.

SIDES HADN’T BEEN TALKING

The MSO and MSG Media apparently hadn’t had any meaningful conversation since late last year until Feb. 13, when TWC chairman and CEO Glenn Britt and Cablevision president and CEO James Dolan met. Dolan also serves as executive chairman of MSG Media, whose holdings include the RSNs, the Knicks and the Rangers. MSG Media was spun off from Cablevision last February.

The New York Times reported that a settlement had been urged by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo intervening last Thursday and Friday with Dolan and Britt.

In a statement issued last Friday afternoon, Schneiderman said: “Our office has worked diligently with Time Warner Cable and MSG Networks over the last month to bring about a resolution to their dispute. We are pleased that both parties have reached an agreement that will finally allow Knicks, Rangers and Sabres fans to enjoy the rest of this season’s games.”

Added Cuomo, also in a statement: “I applaud both Mr. Dolan and Mr. Britt and their companies. I thank them for being responsive to the needs of New Yorkers.”

Pressure had been ratcheted upon the programmer and distributor for the week or so prior to the settlement, as New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin became an international “Linsation,” leading the Knicks on a seven-game winning streak and stoking MSG ratings to season highs during each of its last three telecasts through Feb. 15.

Time Warner Cable had claimed that an agreement calling for a 6.5% increase in monthly subscriber fees had been reached in early December, before MSG upped its ask to a 53% hike. MSG had maintained those rat ios were a “mischaracterization.”

SNL Kagan estimates that MSG draws a monthly subscriber license fee of $2.48, while pegging MSG Plus’s take at $2.17.

Time Warner Cable and MSG Media didn’t respond to requests for comment.

RATINGS SLAM DUNK

With the “Linfatuation” in full court press mode, MSG’s Feb. 15 telecast of the Knicks’ 100- 85 blowout of the Sacramento Kings marked its third consecutive season-high rating, dunking a 5.78 Nielsen household rating, which translates to 427,015 households in the New York DMA, according to Nielsen data.

That delivery, sans any Nielsen contribut ion from Time Warner Cable homes, ranked as the highest-rated Knicks game on MSG since Carmelo Anthony’s debut on Feb. 23, 2011, netted a 6.75 household rating and 507,285 households.

Through six games in which Lin has been the starter — all Knicks wins — the team’s average household rat ing on MSG increased 109%, to a 3.79 rat ing and 279,998 households, compared to the previous 20 games, when the RSN averaged a 1.81 and 133,719 households. The winning streak also spurred a 69% increase in the average season-to-date household rating, compared to the first 26 games on MSG Network last season: a 2.27 compared with a 1.34 and 167,703 households against 100,705 households.

Over those six games, MSG recorded a 67% increase over the average 2011-12 season- to-date household rating — a 3.39 mark versus a. 2.13, with 279,998 households compared with 167,703.