I’ve had Verizon FiOS “Triple Play” (phone-data-tv) for a few months now and love it. At The Gym every morning I love watching MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. As I was programming my channel presets for my SlingBox client, I couldn’t find the channel number for MSNBC. I thought I was going crazy, but nope, it turns out that VERIZON FIOS TV DOES NOT OFFER MSNBC IN NORTHERN NJ. WTF?! Here’s the explanation from Wikipedia:

As a result of a carriage agreement, MSNBC is currently not available to Verizon Fios TV subscribers in Verizon’s Northern New Jersey grouping as well as areas in New York City. The reason for the lack of availability is an exclusive carriage agreement that MSNBC entered into with Cablevision, which services the areas in question. [8] The terms of the agreement (i.e. when the exclusive agreement expires) are unknown. The result of the agreement is that a competing content provider will be unable to offer MSNBC from where the broadcast originates. Also, as Verizon’s subscriptions rise, MSNBC will be increasingly unavailable in one of the largest markets in the United States unless viewers subscribe to a second provider (either Cablevision or one of the satellite TV providers).

Wow, what a disappointment.