The battle between RSNs and cable suppliers continues to wage, with Comcast and YES Community now taking middle stage after the community’s CEO went on Sunday’s Yankees broadcast to lambast the cable firm.
YES Community will go darkish in all households which have Comcast at 11:59 p.m. on Monday evening whereas the 2 sides proceed to duke it out over carriage charges – Comcast needs to maneuver the regional sports activities community to a higher-priced digital bundle, whereas the community needs to stay on the fundamental cable tier.
The perimeters had come to an settlement final week to increase the deadline previous this weekend to avert points for the primary few video games of the Yankees’ season.
That led to YES CEO Jon Litner becoming a member of the published of the Yankees-Brewers sport to deal with the present state of affairs.
“Regardless of our makes an attempt to barter a brand new carriage settlement with them, Comcast has refused to barter. As a substitute, they’ve knowledgeable us that they are going to drop the YES Community from their programming lineup Monday evening at midnight,” Litner mentioned on the air whereas sitting between Yankees broadcasters Michael Kay and Paul O’Neill.
Litner went on to say that the community had come to agreements with “all of our largest distributors” to maintain YES Community on these platforms.
The Community’s CEO then recommended that Comcast had been exhibiting “preferential therapy” to RSNs that it had a stake in – Comcast owns a bit of the Mets TV dwelling SNY – whereas stiffing ones that they don’t.
“They’re demanding that YES transfer to a costlier, digital bundle that can value you, its loyal prospects, $20 extra monthly,” he continued. “On the similar time, Comcast continues to present their very own networks, together with SNY, preferential therapy by maintaining them within the less-costly bundle. And that is precisely the bullying tactic Comcast used in opposition to MSG Networks a couple of years in the past which resulted in MSG being dropped by Comcast. I assume it’s the Comcast playbook to favor their very own networks and drawback networks they don’t personal.”
Litner concluded his look by calling on Yankees followers with Comcast to name their cable supplier or native politicians to voice their displeasure over the difficulty.
Although it might seem native politicians are properly conscious of the state of affairs at hand.
Federal Communications Fee chairman Brendan Carr posted an announcement on X on Sunday evening, together with a screenshot of The Put up’s protection of the continuing dispute.
“I might encourage a fast and favorable decision for the advantage of everybody, Carr mentioned partially. “The FCC does have authority to step in and deal with claims of discriminatory conduct.”
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont – representatives from two areas that might be most affected if YES goes darkish on Comcast – have each beforehand posted messages on X calling for the 2 sides to return to an settlement.
Comcast launched an announcement following the looks by Litner, pointing the finger again at YES for the present standoff.
“We’ve supplied to distribute YES Community in the identical bundle that has been accepted by 20 RSNs in over 100 DMAs throughout the nation in an effort to present followers with entry to YES programming and a alternative for customers who don’t wish to pay the extra charges for the video games,” Comcast mentioned in an announcement, per Terrible Asserting. “YES Community has insisted we pay increased charges when practically 90% of shoppers watched fewer than 5 of the ~130 Yankees video games it aired final season. If we lose the rights to hold YES, we’ll credit score our prospects between $7-$10 a month. Xfinity prospects also can subscribe on to the Gotham Sports activities App to look at the video games.”
The sports activities media information website additionally famous that Comcast has the truth is moved their very own networks to higher-priced tiers previously, together with simply this previous January when it did so with NBC Sports activities Bay Space and NBC Sports activities California.
