Refunds To New Yorkers For Lost Live Sports Programming

NEW YORK — New Yorkers who paid for live sports programming they never received when the coronavirus pandemic shut down the country have received $76 million in refunds and rebates and can expect more, the New York Attorney General's Office announced.

It's been almost a year. It was April 2020 when Attorney General Letitia James sent seven major cable and satellite television providers letters demanding they provide financial relief to about 4 million New Yorkers by reducing or eliminating fees attributable to live sports programming.

"The discussions revealed a complex chain of contracts between the cable and satellite companies and various leagues, teams, and regional sports networks. While any rebates provided by the leagues and teams were supposed to eventually be passed to networks, including to regional sports networks, and then to distributors and, finally, to the public, the initial rebates and flow-through were slow to materialize, resulting in substantial delays to consumers, the AG's Office said in the announcement.

James said she has also gotten additional commitments from the seven companies — Altice USA, AT&T Inc., Charter Communications, Comcast Cable, DISH Network, RCN Corporation, and Verizon Communications — totaling tens of millions of dollars more in relief, which will be delivered later in 2021.