SusCom Subscribers Demand SportsNet New York

We, the undersigned, wish to voice our great displeasure with the decision by SusCom Cable of Carmel, NY, which serves all of Putnam County, as well as parts of Dutchess County, not to add SportsNet New York (SNY), the new cable home of the New York Mets, to its channel lineup, due to the company's pending sale to the Comcast Corporation, which is tentatively scheduled to be completed in late April or early May.

In the months following this acquisition, which was announced on October 31st, 2005, SusCom continued to add channels to its lineup, even doing so as recently as January 31st, 2006, when SOAPnet was made available. Therefore, it is the opinion of the undersigned that SusCom had ample time to make arrangements to carry SNY, long before the network's debut on March 16th, but chose not to do so because it badly underestimated the popularity of the New York Mets in its coverage area.

SportsNet New York will be home to 125 of the Mets' 162 regular season games, and all but four of the team's games in the baseball season's opening month of April. Because local blackout restrictions prevent New York residents from viewing ESPN broadcasts of games involving the Mets, as well as MLB.tv's live internet video streams, SusCom's grievous error in judgment has made it nearly impossible for its subscribers to gain access to one of the region's major professional sports teams by any means other than radio while in their homes, which is incomprehensible in a market as passionate about sports as New York.

We, as paying customers, demand that SusCom immediately take steps to rectify this situation, or risk the loss of subscribers to rival providers DirecTV and DISH Network, both of whom serve the local area, and both of whom have agreements in place to carry SNY.