SWEET 17: Knicks point gaurd Jeremy Lin is back on Time Warner Cable thanks to public pressure that forced a deal with MSG. (
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The Linsanity is over in more ways than one.
Time Warner Cable and Madison Square Garden announced an end to their bitter contract impasse yesterday — allowing the MSG Network to return to the cable outlet just in time for stunned fans to watch the Knicks’ seven-game Jeremy Lin-fueled winning streak come crumb-lin’ down.
“I knew it wouldn’t last, what a joke,” said disappointed Knick fan Danny Marte, 28, after Lin and the team lost 89-85 to the lowly New Orleans Hornets at Madison Square Garden last night.
Since MSG was taken off Time Warner Cable on New Year’s Day, the cable company’s 2.8 million subscribers missed a total of 149 Knicks, Devils, Rangers and Islanders games.
But it was the 12 days since Lin’s spectacular debut as a Harvard-graduate point guard that turned the disappointment by Knick fans into a torrent of fury by legions of TV viewers demanding to see the NBA’s newest star.
Asked about the pressure to settle, Gov. Cuomo said, “I believe Jeremy Lin did heighten it because people really wanted to see the programs.”
Ironically, the good news for Time Warner customers comes as the “Linsanity” over the performance of the young point guard reached its first speed bump.
After tearing up the hardwood for several games, Lin turned the ball over nine times in a disappointing loss to a Hornets squad with a 7-23 record.
The return of MSG to Time Warner came after NBA Commissioner David Stern got involved in the last two days — telling Time Warner and MSG that it was important to get the Knicks back on local cable TV.
Sources said Time Warner was overwhelmed with phone calls yesterday from subscribers demanding a rebate for the lost MSG games.
Word of the deal came hours after City Council Speaker Christine Quinn took to Twitter, urging cable subscribers to tell Time Warner to “demand a refund.”
The previous day, Quinn wrote to the warring TV execs, threatening to haul them into public hearings.
“Now, a million more New Yorkers will be able to go Linsane in the privacy of their own living room,” Quinn said.
Both Time Warner and MSG acknowledged the help of Cuomo, Stern and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in bringing about what was called a verbal tentative agreement.
“I was close to threatening to bring them to Albany and put them in the Red Room,” Cuomo joked, alluding to the executive chamber in the Capitol.
Lin has been TV-ratings magic since his Feb. 4 debut. ESPN had its biggest regular-season Friday night audience this season — 34 percent above the average with 3 million viewers — when Lin outscored Kobe Bryant with 38 points to beat the Lakers last week.
MSG Network has seen its ratings more than triple since Lin became a starter.
Additional reporting by Erik Kriss in Albany