James Dolan’s MSG Networks, Optimum dig in for long fight as Knicks game blacked out: sources

An MSGN bankruptcy would not necessarily be bad for Dolan, who controls both Sphere Entertainment and Madison Square Garden Sports, the parent company of the Knicks, Rangers and operator of the World’s Most Famous Arena.

“A full drop would ultimately bankrupt MSG Networks,” media analyst LightShed Partners said in a report this week.

MSGN issued a rebuttal in its own New Year’s Day statement: “This is a pure and simple price gauge from Altice. An attempt to add over $10 dollars a month right to their bottom line. In essence a $10 dollar rate increase on top of a 50 % rate increase.”

Optimum pulled the plug on MSG shortly after confetti rained down on Times Square to ring in 2025 – and Knicks and Rangers fans could be left in the dark well into the new year, The Post has learned.

The two sides remain far apart in the high-stakes negotiations that have major implications for both companies, sources close to the situation told The Post.

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“When you drop an RSN, you lose about 5% of your customers but your revenue increases nearly 20% since you save money by not paying for that channel,” the RSN executive said.

Optimum subscribers, meanwhile, were furious over losing access to their beloved teams.

Optimum also issued a scathing message Wednesday aimed at MSGN, which is led by Knicks and Rangers owner James Dolan.

But the revenue MSGN gets from cable providers, in deals that have much shorter time frames, is falling.

The breakdown in talks over a new contract with MSG Networks, which expired at midnight Tuesday, is part of a wider retrenchment by cable operators looking to slash the high prices demanded by regional sports networks, or RSNs.

In an odd bit of irony, the Knicks owner is feuding with the company founded in 1973 by his dad, cable pioneer Charles Dolan, and then called Cablevision. It was sold, along with the Optimum brand, to European telecom giant Altice for $17.7 billion in 2016. Charles Dolan died last weekend at age 98.

The debt on that loan is trading at five cents on the dollar, the RSN executive said.

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MSGN is losing money party because it is paying $187 million in 2025 to broadcast Knicks and Rangers games as part of a 20-year agreement that ends in 2035, according to public filings.

MSG Networks declined comment about its financial status.

But cleaving away MSGN would likely boost Sphere Entertainment, which also includes the $2.3 billion futuristic Las Vegas music mecca.

The network, which is part of publicly-traded Sphere Entertainment, has been in default on $830 million in loans since October and has a forbearance agreement with its lenders that expires Jan. 10.

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The move from basic cable to a premiere tier could hit debt-saddled MSGN’s bottom line by as much as 50%, since the majority of Optimum’s roughly 1 million subscribers in the New York City area would no longer pay for the channel, an RSN executive working for another network told The Post.

“This would be good news for Sphere shareholders,” LightShed said. “Removing the $830 million in MSG Networks debt from Sphere’s balance sheet should mean a significant increase in Sphere’s stock price.

That option is a 30% discount if they subscribe to the streaming service Fubo, which carries MSG Networks, as long as they keep Optimum’s internet service.

He would take a hit from reduced rights fees for the Knicks and Rangers.

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