Comcast Says No to YES, Drops Yankees, Nets From TV Programming

By JASON KOESTENBLATT (Patch Staff)

If you’re a Comcast cable customer in New Jersey and a fan of the New York Yankees or Brooklyn Nets, business negotiations have just put a hold on your fandom.

As of midnight Tuesday, the YES network – home of the Yankees and Nets – has been dropped from Comcast programming.

In a statement to fans and customers, YES network’s website said:

As of midnight, Tuesday November 17, and just weeks after the end of the baseball season, Comcast has decided to drop YES Network, home to the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets and New York City FC, with no advance notice to its subscribers. Comcast’s reputation for poor customer satisfaction is well known, but this surprise development represents a new low. YES and Comcast reached an agreement in principle on the key points of a new contract many months ago, and YES continued to operate in good faith under that arrangement through the entire Yankees and NYCFC seasons and into the Nets season. Unfortunately, because YES will not yield to Comcast’s demands for special treatment and anti-competitive terms, Comcast has decided to drop YES Network and its coverage of the NY Yankees, Brooklyn Nets and the New York City FC.

The website goes on to say Comcast “alone made this decision and removed YES programming from its lineup.”

According to NJ.com, 900,000 customers are affected by the change. Citing a unnamed source close to the negotiations, NJ.com reported Yankees games have garnered low ratings in recent years, causing the negotiations impasse.