CT Attorney General To Cable Companies: 'Give Us Back Our Sports'

CONNECTICUT — The attorneys general from Connecticut, New York and New Jersey are demanding refunds for residents of their states denied access to MSG Networks cable channels.

As a result of a contract dispute between Altice USA, the owner of Optimum, cable consumers in the tri-state area who paid extra for these sports channels have been blocked from accessing them. In a Feb. 5 letter to Altice, the attorneys general demanded automatic refunds for those customers.

Altice removed access to MSG channels for its Optimum cable plan customers beginning in January 2025. MSG channels, which provide exclusive coverage of the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, and Buffalo Sabres have remained blacked out since January 1.

"Optimum and MSG need to stop the posturing and get back to the table. Figure it out and let us watch our sports in peace," said Connecticut Attorney General Tong. "In the meantime, consumers are paying for sports they can’t watch and they are owed immediate refunds without hassle."

A spokesperson for Optimum said her company is committed to "offering solutions that provide the content they want to watch at affordable prices," but "distributors like Optimum continue to be handcuffed by programmers like MSG Networks who demand we make their content available to the majority of customers, regardless of actual viewer interest."

It is this antiquated model, one that forces high fees and minimum penetration rates, that continues to drive up the costs of legacy video packages and gives distributors like us little flexibility to adjust prices – especially in an evolving TV landscape where consumers now have more choice than ever before. "