Optimum cable owner Altice okayed pay raises for execs while refusing to refund subscribers for MSG blackout

Optimum handed out fat raises to top executives during its bitter contract battle with James Dolan’s MSG Networks — while refusing to offer refunds despite Knicks and Rangers games being blacked out since the start of the year.Dennis Matthew, the CEO of Optimum’s parent company Altice USA, got a bump to $1.55 million a year from $1 million, while Chief Financial Officer Marc Sirota’s base salary jumped to $650,000 from $500,000, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week.Matthew, a former Comcast executive, was also given a target annual cash incentive award of $3 million and an annual long-term incentive target of $10 million, the SEC filings show.

Sirota is in line to receive bonuses totaling around $4.5 million.The salary packages, which were approved by the company’s board on Feb.4, were put into effect retroactively on Jan.

1 — the same day that an estimated 1 million Optimum households in the Tri-State area lost coverage of the Knicks and Rangers, along with the Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils.Optimum was paying James Dolan-controlled MSGN more than $10 per subscriber to carry the channel before the contract expired in December.The company wants to renegotiate the so-called carriage fee but the two sides have remained at an impasse.MSG Networks has accused Optimum of pocketing $10 million for each month the negotiations drag on.“These pay increases are funded at the expense of Altice’s customers who continue to pay for programming they no longer receive,” an MSG Networks spokesperson told The Post on Wednesday:“We stand ready to negotiate or submit to binding arbitration to immediately restore our games.”Earlier this week, New York Gov.

Kathy Hochul urged both sides to reach agreement, saying that she instructed the Department of Public Service (DPS) to intervene.The agency gave Altice five days to provide a plan to refund subscribers who paid their fees with the understanding th...