Fox ‘not optimistic’ about Bright House impasse

Once again, Brighthouse Networks may keep local Magic fans from seeing their team.

A statement released Tuesday by Fox said:

“We are not optimistic an agreement will be in place with Bright House on Jan. 1 so fans should begin making alternative plans to see Sun Sports’ Magic telecasts and other local sports programming airing on Sun Sports.”

Magic TV partner Sun Sports is bundled in with this Fox/Bright House contract which expires Dec. 31. If no deal is reached, Sun Sports will go dark on Bright House on Jan. 1, meaning 25 of the Magic’s final 50 regular-season games won’t be available to Bright House Networks subscribers. That includes the Magic’s upcoming three-game road trip, which begins Friday night at Minnesota.

Other channels that will be impacted if no deal is reached include: WOFL-Channel35, WRBW Channel65, FX, Fuel, Fox Soccer, Sun Sports, Speed, Fox Movie Channel, Fox Reality Channel and Fox Sports en español.

Fox Sports Florida, which also broadcasts Magic games, is not included in this current contract and will continue to air games on Bright House Networks.

Magic fans already had to deal with Brighthouse’s feud with Fox Sports forcing fans to miss many of Orlando’s games.

Read the full story here.

You can read even more about the situation here.

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)