The President of the New York Yankees baseball team and Chairman of its regional cable channel YES Network issued a rare and unusual statement on Tuesday, praising a number of government officials after the sports organization narrowly avoided a programming-related dispute with Comcast.
The statement, issued by YES Network Chairman & New York Yankees President Randy Levine, specifically thanked President Donald Trump and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, as well as governors from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and a number of state and federal lawmakers.
“On behalf of the YES Network and the New York Yankees, I want to express our deep appreciation to everyone who supported our efforts to keep the YES Network from going dark,” Levine wrote. “All of you worked tirelessly to urge us to stay at the table and reach a deal.”
A dispute was first publicized last week when Comcast and YES Network said they had reached a temporary agreement to keep the regional sports network on Xfinity TV in the New York City area following the expiration of its current distribution deal.
Both sides were at odds over how much Comcast was willing to pay the Yankees for continued distribution of YES Network, and where the channel would be offered on the Xfinity TV line-up.
A spokesperson for Comcast said nearly two dozen other regional sports network owners had agreed to the company’s willingness to distribute their channels in a different programming package, but YES Network had not. Over the past two years, Comcast has moved regional sports channels into its costlier “Ultimate” tier, — including its own NBC-branded channels in California, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania — after they were previously offered in lower-priced plans.
Comcast does not provide Xfinity TV service to New York City itself, but does power cable TV systems around the city, to include parts of upstate New York and areas of New Jersey and Connecticut within the Yankees broadcast territory.
Over the weekend, FCC Chairman Carr said he was monitoring the situation and that the agency was willing to step in if YES Network was pulled from Comcast.
“The FCC does have authority to step in and address claims of discriminatory conduct,” Carr wrote.
The FCC regulates Comcast as a broadband provider, and has some authority over its carriage agreements on its pay TV services, though its enforcement is largely limited to whether Comcast and a programmer have negotiated in “good faith” toward a new deal when both sides want an agreement. The term “good faith” has never been defined, and the FCC generally interprets it on a case-by-case basis.
The FCC has greater authority to regulate programming-related deals between cable and satellite TV providers and FCC-licensed broadcasters, and can issue fines against one or both sides if the “good faith” provision is violated. The YES Network is not licensed by the FCC to operate as a broadcast station.
It isn’t clear whether Carr or the FCC actually became involved in the issue between Comcast and YES Network, or to what effect. Carr “liked” a social media post from The Desk that affirmed the situation had caught his attention; earlier this week, he praised both sides for reaching an agreement.
