Comcast drops MSG; N.J. & Conn. viewers in dark

Another promising Knicks season is around the corner — but hundreds of thousands of New Jersey and Connecticut fans may not be able to watch it due to a dispute between MSG Network and Comcast.

The two companies exchanged strongly worded statements Friday morning, with the cable company citing poor viewership.

According to a Garden release, Comcast dropped MSG Network from its Xfinity channel lineup “despite our best efforts to reach a new agreement.’’

If the situation drags on, Comcast subscribers will miss 85 percent of Knicks games. MSG Network will broadcast 70 of the 82 contests — with the rest on national networks.

The disagreement will also affect games for the NHL’s Islanders, Rangers and Devils.

The Knicks begin their preseason Tuesday against Indiana and their season opener is Oct. 20 versus Boston.

MSG Networks statement read in part:

“Right when fans are looking forward to the start of the NBA and NHL seasons, Comcast dropped MSG Networks to try to force us to accept terms they’d never agree to for their own regional sports networks, including SNY in New York. They rejected proposals that are consistent with their current deal and deals we have with other major providers, as well as our offer to keep our programming on air under existing terms so we could continue to work on a longer-term agreement.

“And even though they’ve taken away hundreds of live Knicks, Devils, Rangers and Islanders games, they continue to charge Xfinity customers the same monthly rate — in addition to a regional sports fee that they increased 22% in January to more than $10 per month. Comcast’s refusal to negotiate is deeply disappointing.

Comcast quickly responded.

“We don’t believe that our customers should have to pay the millions of dollars in fees that MSG is demanding for some of the most expensive sports content in the country with extremely low viewership in our markets,” the company said. “According to our data, customer viewership of the MSG networks is virtually non-existent. Almost 95% of all customers who received MSG over the past year did not watch more than 10 of the approximately 240 games it broadcast.

“Additionally, up to 80% of customers didn’t watch any MSG content at all each month in that timeframe. We have successfully negotiated thousands of agreements with programmers and reached agreements in almost every instance and are disappointed that MSG decided to pull their content rather than reach a fair agreement.”