Strange times in the regional sports network business are making for strange bedfellows.

The YES Network and MSG Networks have completed a joint venture called Gotham Advanced Media and Entertainment (GAME) that will seek to create a new revenue stream for both networks by offering digital content distribution services to third parties. Both YES and MSG operate direct-to-consumer streaming services, and they will be collaborating on a white-label digital platform similar to MLB’s successful BAMTech service, ultimately purchased by Disney for $3.8 billion. In other words, the technology and expertise behind MSG+ and the YES App will make its way to other services.

Such a partnership would have been unthinkable for most of the past two decades, as the two New York-area entities have battled regularly for regional supremacy among sports fans. Most specifically, the Steinbrenner family, which owns the New York Yankees and the largest share of YES, engaged in a bitter dispute in 2002-03 with James Dolan, now MSG’s executive chairman, over distribution of the RSN on Cablevision when the cable giant was owned by the Dolan family. Dolan also controls the New York Knicks and Rangers.