• Multichannel News, Sunday, December 27, 2009 11:30 PM

DirecTV and Rainbow Media and MSG may be trying to hammer out carriage renewals on New Year's Eve. The multiyear distribution contracts for Rainbow Media's national services AMC, We TV, IFC and Fuse end with DirecTV on Dec. 31, as do the deals for regional sports networks MSG and MSG Plus.

DirecTV is in the middle of other contract situations: Comcast's national sports service Versus has been off its air since Sept. 1 over pricing and positioning issues; the top DBS provider recently avoided arbitration by settling with Comcast SportsNet New England.

The negotiations with Rainbow and the MSG come as parent Cablevision is poised to spin off various properties, including the Madison Square Garden arena and professional sports teams the New York Knicks, Rangers and Liberty, music channel Fuse and its regional MSG Networks sports channels, into its own business.

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