No Joy in Jersey: Yankees Fans Fear TV Blackout Amid Fox Dispute
- Impasse reflects pay-TV industry bid to rein in costs
- YES Network remains unavailable to about 900,000 subscribers
(NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) in action against the during the American League Wild Card Game at Yankee Stadium on October 6, 2015 in the Bronx borough of New York City, New York. The Astros defeated the Yankees 3-0.
Photographer: Jim McIsaac/Getty ImagesLouis Scafidi has cheered for the New York Yankees since he was a boy in Brooklyn and Mickey Mantle wore pinstripes. A 52-year-old accountant in Clark, New Jersey, Scafidi brings a TV to work during tax season so he won’t miss a pitch.
Now Scafidi is caught in the middle of television’s changing landscape. In mid-November, Comcast Corp. dropped the YES Network, which airs most Yankees games, making the channel unavailable to about 900,000 subscribers including Scafidi. As spring training begins this week, the impasse between Comcast and the YES Network -- majority-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. –- isn’t close to being resolved, according to people close to both companies.