I am sure most of you are aware of the horrible situation many fans are experiencing regarding the television coverage of the New York Rangers (for once the horrible situation is OFF the ice). As it stands right now, those of you who subscribe to Cablevision are not able to see any of the Rangers games that appear on OLN.
As part of its agreement with the NHL, OLN has exclusive broadcast rights for Monday night games of its choosing. That means that your local station will be blacked-out from showing Rangers' games that are being broadcast by OLN on those nights.
Cablevision (which also owns the Rangers and the MSG network), does not carry OLN on its basic tier. In order to get OLN, Cablevision subscribers need to pay about $5 dollars extra per month for an additional "sports tier", which would give them OLN, along with several other channels, including the Golf Channel and Fox College Sports.
HOWEVER.......OLN feels it should be carried as a basic tier network as it is in most areas of the country, and is not permitting its coverage of NHL games to be shown on Cablevision, EVEN IF THE SUBSCRIBER PAYS EXTRA FOR THE NETWORK. The National Hockey League is fully aware of this situation, and is permitting OLN to engage in this practice.
Now, we are not going to argue who is to blame anymore. We don't care. All we know is that it is a disgrace and an embarrassment to the league and its commissioner, Gary Bettman, to have dedicated fans PROHIBITED from seeing their favorite team. This is supposed to be the new "fan-friendly" NHL, yet they have allowed this situation to continue for two Ranger games so far, with several more to come this season.
We have placed calls to the NHL offices, OLN, Cablevision, and the New York Rangers. We will publish the statements as we receive them. So far, OLN was the first to respond. (I should note that my call to the NHL public relations offices was returned promptly, and I was given an opportunity to discuss the matter with a representative. I was directed to another department and am awaiting a statement from them.)
A spokesperson from OLN had this to say:
Hockey is a great sport and we believe that all fans should be able to enjoy this season's coverage. Traditionally the NHL, like all major professional sports, has been broadly distributed on a basic tier. We believe that hockey fans deserve the right to watch hockey the way they watch all other major professional sports.
Cablevision is trying to limit hockey games to 22,000 customers, and denying more than 99% of its customers access to these games; we're fighting to bring the games to 3 million New York fans.
We would like to call upon our friends in the media to help us with this problem. We know you read us, and we feel our collective voices will have a greater impact. Larry Brooks mentioned it in his column today. We would like to see something mentioned from John Dellapina, Steve Zipay, Colin Stephenson, Andrew Gross, Jason Diamos, The Rodent, Spector, Blueshirt Bulletin, OutsidetheGarden, Ranger Fan Central, and all the other voices out there. All your help is appreciated.
A message to the NHL, OLN, Cablevision, and the Rangers: WE WILL NOT LET THIS GO.
Below you will find the contact information for all of the parties involved. Please let them know how you feel. We only ask that you are courteous and professional in your correspondence with them. If you are a fan who is experiencing a similar situation with other cable or satellite systems, please let us know about it and we will try to address it.
National Hockey League:
1251 Avenue of the Americas, 47th. Floor. New York, NY 10020
Phone: (212) 789-2000
OLN:
Two Stamford Plaza - 9th Floor, 281 Tresser Boulevard, Stamford, CT 06901
Phone: (203) 406-2500
Cablevision:
1111 Stewart Avenue, Bethpage, NY 11714
Phone: (516) 803-2300
New York Rangers:
2 Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10121
Phone: (212) 465-6000
HAVE YOUR VOICE HEARD.....LET THEM KNOW HOW YOU FEEL.
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