MSG Networks, the embattled cable TV station that airs Recent York Knicks and Rangers games, is in talks to succeed in a deal to avoid bankruptcy as soon as Friday — and insiders speculate that help may very well be coming from a deep-pocketed media player like Amazon, The Post has learned.
The sports channel controlled by billionaire Knicks owner James Dolan — currently blacked out for about 1 million Recent York-area subscribers due to a contract dispute with the Optimum cable network — is scrambling to restructure its debt with a gaggle of lenders led by JPMorgan who’re owed $829 million.
MSG Networks in October defaulted on its loans but lenders have prolonged the payment deadline multiple times, most recently from Jan. 10 to Friday at midnight. This time, the aim is to succeed in a deal relatively than simply extend the deadline again, based on sources briefed on the discussions.
“Talks are ongoing,” sources near the situation said on Friday afternoon.
MSG Networks didn’t return calls and JPMorgan declined to comment.
To make a deal occur, sources speculate that MSG will take money from a latest, outside investor to refinance the crippling debt load — and hand over a stake within the cable business in return. No deal would impact Dolan’s ownership of the Knicks and Rangers, the sources added.
Chatter is now circulating that one possible solution can be to partner with Amazon, whose Prime video service already has a cope with Diamond Sports, the nation’s largest operator of so-called RSNs, or regional sports networks, to broadcast games for professional sports teams nationwide.
Amazon can be an investor within the YES Network that airs Yankees and Nets games, with Prime now airing weekly Yankees games within the Recent York City area.
Amazon declined to comment.
Sources said a key profit in a cope with Amazon can be to provide MSG Networks a substitute for Optimum. The carriage dispute with the Altice USA-owned cable provider cost MSG Networks an estimated $10 million in lost revenue in January, based on analysts.
Comcast also dropped MSG Networks in 2021. Meanwhile, MSG Networks’ own streaming service, the Gotham Sports App, charges $29.99 monthly and has not attracted a big subscriber base, sources said
As MSG Networks flails, Dolan himself hasn’t signaled any possible move to refinance the debt himself. Indeed, shares of MSG Networks’ parent company, publicly-traded Sphere Entertainment, have risen 7.5% over the past five days, with investors betting that an MSGN bankruptcy will stem losses and improve its balance sheet, based on analysts.
Sphere shares were down 3% in after-hours trading Friday on the chance that bankruptcy may very well be averted.
If the newest talks fail and MSG Networks slips into chapter 11, lenders would likely take over operations and keep airing games, sources said.
A bankruptcy also could raise the percentages of a cope with Optimum, since a lighter debt load would enable MSG Networks to charge Optimum lower fees to hold its games, sources said.
Under the deal that expired Dec. 31, Optimum was paying MSG Networks about $10 per subscriber, making it one of the vital expensive cable channels, based on reports.
Optimum, which has about one-third of the roughly 3 million subscribers within the Recent York City area, is trying to put MSGN on a premium tier so there can be far fewer MSGN subscribers and it could lower costs.
Its parent company Altice too is deeply in debt.
Without Optimum’s customers, MSG Networks is losing money even before factoring in its interest payments, analysts said.
“A full drop would ultimately bankrupt MSG Networks,” media analyst Brandon Ross of LightShed Partners wrote earlier this month in a report.
Revenue from cable providers is falling due partly to cord-cutting since there are far fewer subscribers.
MSG Networks contract with Verizon’s Fios expires in September, leading to a different potentially difficult negotiation, a lender told The Post.
The cable network is losing money since it is paying $187 million in 2025 to broadcast Knicks and Rangers games as a part of a 20-year agreement that ends in 2035, based on public filings.
“The model is the other way up,” a source within the RSN industry said, and the costs paid for media rights a decade ago now make little sense.
Recent MSGN owners in a possible bankruptcy could cancel the Knicks and Rangers media rights deal and negotiate a much lower contract, the RSN source said.
Dolan, who controls the Knicks and Rangers, could lower the rights fees as a part of an overall package that keeps MSG Networks out of bankruptcy and puts it on stronger financial ground.
MSG Networks, the embattled cable TV station that airs Recent York Knicks and Rangers games, is in talks to succeed in a deal to avoid bankruptcy as soon as Friday — and insiders speculate that help may very well be coming from a deep-pocketed media player like Amazon, The Post has learned.
The sports channel controlled by billionaire Knicks owner James Dolan — currently blacked out for about 1 million Recent York-area subscribers due to a contract dispute with the Optimum cable network — is scrambling to restructure its debt with a gaggle of lenders led by JPMorgan who’re owed $829 million.
MSG Networks in October defaulted on its loans but lenders have prolonged the payment deadline multiple times, most recently from Jan. 10 to Friday at midnight. This time, the aim is to succeed in a deal relatively than simply extend the deadline again, based on sources briefed on the discussions.
“Talks are ongoing,” sources near the situation said on Friday afternoon.
MSG Networks didn’t return calls and JPMorgan declined to comment.
To make a deal occur, sources speculate that MSG will take money from a latest, outside investor to refinance the crippling debt load — and hand over a stake within the cable business in return. No deal would impact Dolan’s ownership of the Knicks and Rangers, the sources added.
Chatter is now circulating that one possible solution can be to partner with Amazon, whose Prime video service already has a cope with Diamond Sports, the nation’s largest operator of so-called RSNs, or regional sports networks, to broadcast games for professional sports teams nationwide.
Amazon can be an investor within the YES Network that airs Yankees and Nets games, with Prime now airing weekly Yankees games within the Recent York City area.
Amazon declined to comment.
Sources said a key profit in a cope with Amazon can be to provide MSG Networks a substitute for Optimum. The carriage dispute with the Altice USA-owned cable provider cost MSG Networks an estimated $10 million in lost revenue in January, based on analysts.
Comcast also dropped MSG Networks in 2021. Meanwhile, MSG Networks’ own streaming service, the Gotham Sports App, charges $29.99 monthly and has not attracted a big subscriber base, sources said
As MSG Networks flails, Dolan himself hasn’t signaled any possible move to refinance the debt himself. Indeed, shares of MSG Networks’ parent company, publicly-traded Sphere Entertainment, have risen 7.5% over the past five days, with investors betting that an MSGN bankruptcy will stem losses and improve its balance sheet, based on analysts.
Sphere shares were down 3% in after-hours trading Friday on the chance that bankruptcy may very well be averted.
If the newest talks fail and MSG Networks slips into chapter 11, lenders would likely take over operations and keep airing games, sources said.
A bankruptcy also could raise the percentages of a cope with Optimum, since a lighter debt load would enable MSG Networks to charge Optimum lower fees to hold its games, sources said.
Under the deal that expired Dec. 31, Optimum was paying MSG Networks about $10 per subscriber, making it one of the vital expensive cable channels, based on reports.
Optimum, which has about one-third of the roughly 3 million subscribers within the Recent York City area, is trying to put MSGN on a premium tier so there can be far fewer MSGN subscribers and it could lower costs.
Its parent company Altice too is deeply in debt.
Without Optimum’s customers, MSG Networks is losing money even before factoring in its interest payments, analysts said.
“A full drop would ultimately bankrupt MSG Networks,” media analyst Brandon Ross of LightShed Partners wrote earlier this month in a report.
Revenue from cable providers is falling due partly to cord-cutting since there are far fewer subscribers.
MSG Networks contract with Verizon’s Fios expires in September, leading to a different potentially difficult negotiation, a lender told The Post.
The cable network is losing money since it is paying $187 million in 2025 to broadcast Knicks and Rangers games as a part of a 20-year agreement that ends in 2035, based on public filings.
“The model is the other way up,” a source within the RSN industry said, and the costs paid for media rights a decade ago now make little sense.
Recent MSGN owners in a possible bankruptcy could cancel the Knicks and Rangers media rights deal and negotiate a much lower contract, the RSN source said.
Dolan, who controls the Knicks and Rangers, could lower the rights fees as a part of an overall package that keeps MSG Networks out of bankruptcy and puts it on stronger financial ground.
