MSG Networks broke out the big guns in their ongoing dispute with Altice-owned Optimum on Thursday, dropping a commercial featuring Rangers’ TV voice Sam Rosen.
The regional sports network and the cable provider have been locked in a carriage dispute since the beginning of the year which has led to the loss of MSG Networks for any Optimum subscriber, meaning Knicks, Rangers, Islanders and Devils games have been blacked out locally.
As the stalemate has continued into February, MSG Networks released a new ad that shows Rosen encouraging Optimum subscribers to switch over to a competing cable provider.
“Because of Optimum dropping MSG, I’ve lost a big part of what I love the most and that are games,” Rosen said in the video posted to the network’s social media channels. ““Knicks games, Rangers games, got to the point where it was time for a change.”
As Rosen says in the commercial, he is shown letting in a Verizon technician into his home so that he can change his provider.
“Today, I get my MSG Networks back!” the Rangers broadcaster exclaimed in the ad.
He then pays homage to one of his best-known calls from the broadcast of the Rangers’ 1994 Stanley Cup championship win, “the waiting is over.”
The service disruption for Optimum customers comes amid Rosen’s final season calling Rangers games on TV.
The 2024-25 season marked Rosen’s 40th season and the legendary broadcaster expressed to The Post’s Mollie Walker a hope for the Rangers campaign this season to go as long as possible.
“I think it will probably hit me somewhere in the March or April days when the games start to dwindle down to single digits and I realize that there aren’t going to be many more games left,” Rosen said about his retirement.
Ranger fans are hoping that the standoff between Optimum and MSG Networks is resolved before then, but at the moment things seem bleak.
An MSG Networks spokesperson told The Post on Wednesday that the network stands “ready to negotiate or submit to binding arbitration to immediately restore our games.”
Documents filed with the SEC last week revealed that Optimum’s parent company had given the green light for pay raises for execs amid the ongoing contract battle and the provider’s refusal to off refunds related to the dispute with MSG Networks.
“We have been making sure our customers have solutions, spending millions of dollars to help sports fans and non-sports fans alike, helping with Gotham and migrating them to less expensive packages,” an Altice USA spokesperson told The Post.
