MSG pays both the Isles and the Devils a large sum of money to broadcast their games. I assume that cablevision makes back more than the amount that they pay, but that money from MSG is a large chunk of revenue for both teams.
Cablevision is no longer involved with MSG network or the Rangers--they are separate public companies.
And the money that the Rangers make off their MSG contract is a large amount of revenue for them too. The New York area TV market is huge--any professional team is going to have a favorable TV contract. Why do you think the Yankees started their own channel?
Same concept as CSN and Fox Sports broadcasting a lot of different teams. It's easier and more lucrative once you've established a broadcasting company to buy other teams rights. There's only a couple of American based teams broadcast locally outside the networks of CSN, Fox Sports and MSG.
The playoff series coverage vs. the Drivels was a bunch of ********. Our guys (Sam, Maloney, Leetch) were expected to be fair while Chico and Cangialosi ******** NJ. It really pissed me the **** off.
It always bothered me when I lived in upstate new york that the Sabres, a team that I would have to travel 8 and a half hours to see live, took priority over the Rangers, a team that I would have to travel five hours to see live and plays at the garden your channel is named after.
It used to bug me that the Devils would be playing the Panthers or a small market and would be on MSG while the Rangers were on MSG + 5 or some crap, but now that even those overflow channels are in HD it isn't as big of a deal (again, unless you're not in the primary market, which means you're stuck with the game that's on MSG)
I also found it kind of funny that to watch the Rangers games after the first series of the playoffs, you had to have a premium iO package to do so, despite the fact that the guy that owns the team, the arena AND the cable company is one in the same. When I called to add NBC Sports Network to my parents channels the last time I was home, they ended up giving them a discount that made premium cheaper for a year than what iO basic was (which is what they had) but it's still laughable.
It always bothered me when I lived in upstate new york that the Sabres, a team that I would have to travel 8 and a half hours to see live, took priority over the Rangers, a team that I would have to travel five hours to see live and plays at the garden your channel is named after.
It used to bug me that the Devils would be playing the Panthers or a small market and would be on MSG while the Rangers were on MSG + 5 or some crap, but now that even those overflow channels are in HD it isn't as big of a deal (again, unless you're not in the primary market, which means you're stuck with the game that's on MSG)
Yeh whats up with that? I have a relative who lives upstate near Glens Falls. He says they show BUFFALO SABRES games and not NY Rangers, WTF???
