Looks like Dish customers are out of luck on SNY. From today's NY Post :
SNY STEPS UP TO PLATE
By PHIL MUSHNICK
SPORTSNET New York, the new Mets network, will debut Thursday with a spring training game and a fabulous opportunity.
Among the three local sports networks that are at least partially owned by the owners of the teams they televise, SNY could establish itself as the go-to channel, the one New York fans rely upon because they know they won't be treated like dopes.
After all, the two pre-existing proprietary channels, MSG and YES, exist primarily to serve both the wallets and sensitivities of their owners.
MSG Network, under the likes of Bob Gutkowski and Mike McCarthy, once was the envy of every regional sports network. Paradise lost. Under the Dolan/Cablevision yoke, MSG has become the kind of propaganda mill that reflects the Dolans' low regard for subscribers, sports fans and obvious truths.
Consider that MSG recently took the biggest Knicks story of the year - the lawsuit against Isiah Thomas - and ordered it totally ignored. MSG viewers are supposed to be too stupid to know any better. Trouble is, they're too familiar with Dolan/Cablevision to expect any better.
Consider that Jim Dolan's idea of a bad team broadcaster is Marv Albert. His idea of a good one is Fran Healy.
Consider that the YES Network blew its chance to replace MSG as the new ol' reliable, because programming either must meet with George Steinbrenner's approval or keep him from registering his disapproval.
From Day 1, YES had Steinbrenner/Yankee shill and clownish self-promoter John Sterling forced upon it (and us) as the voice of YES.
Consider that last spring, although the Yanks were in Fenway and YES owned the New York rights to the game, YES, on behalf of Steinbrenner's sensitivities, ignored the Red Sox World Series ring ceremony - an event known to occur once every 86 years.
The sorriest thing we can write about many people at MSG and YES is that we feel sorry for them, sorry they must pay a professional price because their network's owners simply don't get it. The owners don't understand that treating a viewer with respect for his/her intelligence is a good reflection on that viewer - but an even better one on themselves.
And so it's all there for the taking. SNY has the opportunity to become known as the one local sports network in three that treats folks right, as if they know good from bad and a knockout from a dive.
Jon Litner, SNY's president, and Curt Gowdy, Jr., the ABC Sports vet who is SNY's executive producer, insist the Mets, Comcast and Time-Warner - SNY's ownership - have not only granted them permission to present unfettered, do-the-right-thing TV, but prefer that to transparent cheerleading and burying word of Yankees winning streaks.
Litner and Gowdy say they recognize on what, other than Met games, SNY can build its reputation. They say that everyone who counts is of a like mind. They also know that unless they can back it up, starting Thursday, such talk is cheap.
SNY remains very close to a finished deal with Cablevision and several smaller systems. SNY claims it fully expects to be cleared on all of them, at the latest by Opening Day. As for satellite, DirecTV is a lot closer to a done deal than Dish.
