MSG Networks nears deal to skirt bankruptcy: sources

New York Post

24-04-2025

MSG Networks is nearing a deal with its lender JPMorgan that will allow the regional sports channel to avoid bankruptcy — and potentially pave the way for a merger with the YES Network, The Post has learned.
Under terms of the deal, MSGN — which carries the Knicks, Rangers, Islanders, Devils and Sabres and Gotham FC — will win a debt refinancing in which JPMorgan agrees to reduce it to around $600 million from a current bill of roughly $800 million, sources close to the talks said.
In exchange, Knicks owner James Dolan — whose Sphere Entertainment owns and controls MSGN — would agree to reduce the rights fees MSGN pays the Knicks and Rangers, increasing the network's ability to make its interest payment, the sources said.
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James Dolan's MSG Networks is nearing a deal with its lender JPMorgan that will allow the regional sports channel to avoid bankruptcy
Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
MSGN and JPMorgan declined to comment.
The cable network is losing money partly because it paid $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.
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On the open market, a cable network would pay considerably less for those rights due to cord-cutting, sources said.
After the JPMorgan restructuring, Dolan is likely to start marketing MSGN for sale, sources said. With this new lighter debt package, Dolan hopes to have an easier time finding a buyer.
MSG and YES now partner on the Gotham Sports App, which sells access to both networks for $41.99 a month. Customers can also elect to pay $29.99 a month for MSG or $24.99 a month for YES.
Jamie Dimon's JPMorgan is working with MSG Networks
AP
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MSGN, owned by Knicks owner James Dolan's Sphere Entertainment, had a deadline at midnight on Monday to avoid bankruptcy, and got an extension to Thursday evening as the network and bank feverishly tried to hammer out a truce.
Dolan wants to move MSGN out of Sphere Entertainment, where it is hurting the latter's stock price. The best way to do that is to sell after restructuring the debt, a source said.
MSGN has been in default since October but has not been put in bankruptcy.
Dolan controls the Knicks and Rangers through the separately publicly traded Madison Square Garden Sports.