After a lengthy retransmission consent battle that was resolved earlier this year, YES Network, exclusive TV partner for the New York Yankees, is officially back on Comcast in all markets where it was previously carried.
At the beginning of the year, Comcast and 21st Century Fox reached a new deal for the Fox News Channel and, as part of that, signed a deal to bring back YES after the regional sports network was pulled from Comcast in 2015.
At the time, The Wall Street Journal reported that YES would likely not return to Comcast until after the start of the 2017 MLB season. But by turning the channel back on today, the companies have restarted YES on Comcast with one day to spare before the Yankees kick off their season.
YES Network also airs Brooklyn Nets games in addition to the Yankees.
TV Answer Man reported earlier this morning that Comcast had brought YES back in its Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania markets.
RELATED: Comcast dropping YES is a 'gutless money grab,' Yankees president says
With the YES back on Comcast, so officially ends a very long and often acrimonious carriage dispute.
When YES was originally pulled in 2015, New York Yankees President Randy Levine pulled no punches in calling out Comcast.
"This amounts to nothing more than a money grab," Levine told the New York Daily News. "It's a typical gutless act by a cable carrier seeking to promote its own self-interest."
Though YES is a relatively expensive channel to carry—the network was reportedly seeking a price tag of around $6 per subscriber from Comcast—the cost may not have been the root of the dispute. As the Journal pointed out, the disagreement may have been over “most favored nation” clauses in the contract.