SportsChannel NY (SCNY) "has begun to black out" some
Mets telecasts on nine Comcast cable systems because Comcast
"is refusing to pay" $1M for 25 games added to SCNY's
schedule, affecting "roughly" 75,000 subscribers in NJ & CT,
according to Jim McConville of ELECTRONIC MEDIA. So far,
five Mets games were blacked out, with the Classic Sports
Network aired in their place. While SCNY subscribers were
promised 77 Mets games, the network recently reached a new
deal with the team that gave it 25 additional games. SCNY
then asked cable operators "to pick up part of the cost."
But Comcast says paying the $1M "would have forced it to
charge" SportsChannel subscribers $12-13 more per month, on
top of its current charge of $13-17 a month. Comcast
spokesperson Connie Scholz said the cable operator decided
that paying the $1M "did not provide an incremental value
... given we already carry in that market ESPN, ESPN2,
Classic Sports, MSG and the 77 Mets games that customers are
already receiving." SCNY spokesperson Greg Bouris: "We hope
we can work this out. But we've reached a point where we
now have to preserve the rights of those systems that have
paid the fee" (ELECTRONIC MEDIA, 7/14).
