The Cablevision/Verizon FiOS/MSNBC fiasco strikes again…
From an emailer…
i AM VERY UPSET ABOUT NOT BEING ABLE TO GET MY MSNBC NEWS FIX. i LIVE IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY AND RECENTLY SWITCHED TO FIOS. IT WAS QUITE A SHOCK WHEN THE FIRST STATION I TRY TO ACCESS, MSNBC, IS UNAVAILABLE. IT’S OUTRAGEOUS. I GET TO WATCH GLEN BECK HAVE A MELT DOWN, BUT CAN’T GET THE POINT OF VIEW OF INTELLIGENT, WELL CONSIDERED, COMMENTARY.
Yes, hard as it may be to believe, this problem is still alive. Backstory here. And note the date. Over two years ago. Sadly, there’s still no word on when/if Verizon FiOS will be allowed to broadcast MSNBC in select portions of the Tri-State area, mostly in and around New York City, New Jersey, and Long Island.
Inside Cable News 
April 14, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Let me tell you what you are missing on MSNBC. Olbermann meltdown……republicans bad, democrats good. Thats about all. How do you live without it?
April 14, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Actually, Verizon has done a lot since last summer to make MSNBC available in areas where it can.
Go here:
http://policyblog.verizon.com/PolicyBlog/Blogs/policyblog/EricRabe9/506/Verizon-FiOS-TV-Launches-New-Channels.aspx
And click on the comments section and scroll about halfway down. They posted a list of the townships where they were working on making MSNBC available. I can vouch that they followed through with one of them.
I don’t know where they stand now, but here is the blog post from Verizon from last summer regarding the issue:
We’re making good progress on adding MSNBC to the FiOS TV lineup in parts of Northern NJ that are outside of Cablevision territory. Here is a list of franchise areas where it is now available, or soon will be, as of the date of this posting. More towns are targeted to get MSNBC, and I’ll update this list with additional communities when I can.
Branchburg Township, Livingston Township, Millburn Township, Allenhurst Borough, Belleville Township, Berkeley Heights Township, Bernardsville Borough, Bloomfield Township, Brick Township, Carlstadt Borough, Chatham Township, Chester Township, City of Englewood, Clark Township, Cliffside Park Borough, Cranford Township, Deal Borough, East Brunswick Township, Glen Ridge Borough, Summit City, East Newark Borough, East Orange City, East Rutherford Borough, Eatontown, Edgewater Borough, Englewood Cliffs Borough, Essex Fells Township, Fair Haven Borough, Fairfield Township, Fairview Borough, Fanwood Borough, Far Hills Borough, Fort Lee Borough, Freehold Borough, Garwood Borough, Guttenberg Town, Harding Township, Harrison Town, Hazlet Township, Helmetta Borough, Highlands, Hillside Township, Holmdel Township, Island Heights Borough, Jamesburg Borough, Jersey City, Kearny Town, Kenilworth Borough, Leonia Borough, Little Ferry Borough, Little Silver Borough, Loch Arbour Village, Long Branch City, Long Hill Township, Lyndhurst Township, Maplewood Township, Mendham Borough, Mendham Township, Middletown Township, Monmouth Beach Borough, Montclair Township, Moonachie Borough, Mountainside Borough, New Providence Borough, North Arlington Borough, North Plainfield Borough, Oceanport Borough, Orange City, Palisades Park Borough, Peapack/Gladstone Borough, Perth Amboy City, Plainfield City, Readington Township, Red Park Borough, Sea Bright Borough, Teterboro Borough, West Caldwell Township, Winfield Township.
April 14, 2009 at 3:31 pm
You entirely missed the point Bushleager. It is the Cablevision territory issue that’s the crux of the problem for a lot of people who want FiOS but don’t want to lose MSNBC or who already switched to FiOS thinking they’d get MSNBC and can’t. It’s not like other parts of the country where it’s a case of Verizon simply not having added MSNBC to their roster fast enough. In this case they’re blocked from doing so.
What makes this all the more maddening is the fact that MSNBC is apparently the only NBC Universal cable property to have this burden (I say “apparently” because I didn’t check the entire roster to see). CNBC doesn’t. FiOS viewers who can’t get MSNBC can get CNBC.
Back on the ICN 1.0 blog I’m still getting occasional comments regarding this issue. And as you can see from that comment roll you posted the link to it’s a pretty big issue there as well.
April 14, 2009 at 6:17 pm
No, I understand what was/is going on. Some of those comments in that blog roll are mine. My cable contract was up last summer and I wanted Verizon but I didn’t want to miss the olympic coverage on MSNBC and I was becoming somewhat of a Morning Joe fan – hence the back and forth I had with various people at Verizon over the issue.
Yes, the carriage issue still exists and nobody will say when it will end – hence thosse who live in Cablevision areas cannot get MSNBC on Verizon.
What you are leaving out is the fact that Verizon was blacking out the entire Northern NJ area – including areas that were not Cablevision areas (where I live, for example). That, at least, seems to have been rectified.
April 14, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Ok, I get your point now.
December 7, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Now that Comcast (a cablevision competitor) is buying NBC Uni, it will be interesting to see how this pans out.
February 16, 2012 at 6:13 pm
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