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MSG Network
The MSG Network (MSG) is an American regional cable and satellite television network, and radio service owned by Sphere Entertainment -- a spin-off of the main Madison Square Garden Company operation (itself a spin-off of local cable provider Cablevision).
Primarily serving the Mid-Atlantic United States, its programming focuses on events featuring and other programs about New York City sports teams, including live game broadcasts of the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association, the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres, and New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League and Gotham FC of the National Women's Soccer League. The channel is named after the Madison Square Garden sports and entertainment venue in Midtown Manhattan, home of the Knicks and Rangers.
What would become MSG debuted on October 15, 1969, with an NHL hockey game between the New York Rangers and the Minnesota North Stars. As a result, it became the first regional sports network in North America, and one of the first of its kind in the world. The channel, which at the time did not even have a name, was carried by Manhattan Cable Television under a one-year, 125-event deal that was signed in May 1969. At the time, the cable provider, which had televised New York Knicks and Rangers post-season games the previous spring for a $25,000 rights fee, had only 13,000 subscribers. (The channel's coverage of the deciding game of the 1970 NBA Finals, in which the Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, was the only live broadcast of the game shown in New York City; WABC-TV blacked out ABC's telecast.) Madison Square Garden renewed the deal with what was now Sterling Manhattan Cable Television in the fall of 1970, in a five-year deal at an estimated rights fee of $1–1.5 million. Charles Dolan, who later headed MSG and Cablevision, was the president of Sterling Manhattan at the time. Games held at Madison Square Garden later appeared on another of Sterling Manhattan Cable's ventures, premium cable network Home Box Office (HBO) during the network's early years.
In the meantime, an unrelated channel was launched on September 22, 1977, as a joint-venture of UA-Columbia Cablevision and the Madison Square Garden Corporation, and would brand itself the "Madison Square Garden Sports Network" in 1978 before the Sterling Manhattan Cable channel could use the name. The competitor would change its name in 1980 to the USA Network.
In 1977, the Madison Square Garden Corp, which included its namesake sports arena was sold to Gulf+Western. Around the same time, a separate network was created by the Madison Square Garden Corp. to distribute 125 events to New York-area cable systems. These events were in addition to the 250 already being produced for the national distribution. It was this network which became known as Madison Square Garden Television that would evolve into the current MSG Network.
On April 9, 1980, the channel began using both the full name "Madison Square Garden Network" and its new abbreviated form "MSG Network". By August 1983, Barry Diller, who as head of prominent Gulf+Western division Paramount Pictures became the main shareholder in the USA Network when Gulf+Western transferred the network to Paramount in 1981, would increase the USA Network's relationship with the Madison Square Garden Network through a deal which included making the USA Network a source for MSG events. In December 1988, MSG Network became the first cable network to secure all local television rights to a Major League Baseball team's game, signing a 12-year deal with the New York Yankees that would give it exclusive rights to 150 games per season from 1991 through 2000. Sources placed the value of the agreement at approximately $500 million. By the early 1990s, the channel would affiliate with Prime Network. In 1994, Paramount Communications was acquired by Viacom (itself a cable giant, having once owned various cable systems in the U.S. under the Viacom Cablevision banner and also owner of MTV Networks), which in turn sold the MSG properties to Cablevision and ITT Corporation, which each held a 50% ownership stake; ITT would sell its share to Cablevision three years later.
On October 5, 2006, MSG underwent an extensive rebrand with the introduction of a new logo and graphics package, and the removal of the word "Network" from the channel's promotions. The new logo was designed by Jennifer Little for PMCD design. Since the rebrand, the channel has incorporated more entertainment-oriented programming, including concerts and professional boxing and wrestling cards that have taken place at Madison Square Garden or Radio City Music Hall (both operated by MSG Entertainment). (Full length broadcasts of Madison Square Garden WWWF/WWF wrestling shows had already been previously screened by the MSG Network since the 1970s.) In February 2010, Cablevision spun off MSG Network, the Madison Square Garden venue and other related properties into The Madison Square Garden Company.[citation needed]
In September 2015, the MSG Networks division was spun out into a separate company, with The Madison Square Garden Company maintaining ownership of the venue and related properties. The company was split further in April 2020, with the sports properties operating as Madison Square Garden Sports Corp., and the venue and entertainment properties spun out as the publicly traded Madison Square Garden Entertainment.
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MSG Network
The MSG Network (MSG) is an American regional cable and satellite television network, and radio service owned by Sphere Entertainment -- a spin-off of the main Madison Square Garden Company operation (itself a spin-off of local cable provider Cablevision).
Primarily serving the Mid-Atlantic United States, its programming focuses on events featuring and other programs about New York City sports teams, including live game broadcasts of the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association, the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres, and New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League and Gotham FC of the National Women's Soccer League. The channel is named after the Madison Square Garden sports and entertainment venue in Midtown Manhattan, home of the Knicks and Rangers.
What would become MSG debuted on October 15, 1969, with an NHL hockey game between the New York Rangers and the Minnesota North Stars. As a result, it became the first regional sports network in North America, and one of the first of its kind in the world. The channel, which at the time did not even have a name, was carried by Manhattan Cable Television under a one-year, 125-event deal that was signed in May 1969. At the time, the cable provider, which had televised New York Knicks and Rangers post-season games the previous spring for a $25,000 rights fee, had only 13,000 subscribers. (The channel's coverage of the deciding game of the 1970 NBA Finals, in which the Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, was the only live broadcast of the game shown in New York City; WABC-TV blacked out ABC's telecast.) Madison Square Garden renewed the deal with what was now Sterling Manhattan Cable Television in the fall of 1970, in a five-year deal at an estimated rights fee of $1–1.5 million. Charles Dolan, who later headed MSG and Cablevision, was the president of Sterling Manhattan at the time. Games held at Madison Square Garden later appeared on another of Sterling Manhattan Cable's ventures, premium cable network Home Box Office (HBO) during the network's early years.
In the meantime, an unrelated channel was launched on September 22, 1977, as a joint-venture of UA-Columbia Cablevision and the Madison Square Garden Corporation, and would brand itself the "Madison Square Garden Sports Network" in 1978 before the Sterling Manhattan Cable channel could use the name. The competitor would change its name in 1980 to the USA Network.
In 1977, the Madison Square Garden Corp, which included its namesake sports arena was sold to Gulf+Western. Around the same time, a separate network was created by the Madison Square Garden Corp. to distribute 125 events to New York-area cable systems. These events were in addition to the 250 already being produced for the national distribution. It was this network which became known as Madison Square Garden Television that would evolve into the current MSG Network.
On April 9, 1980, the channel began using both the full name "Madison Square Garden Network" and its new abbreviated form "MSG Network". By August 1983, Barry Diller, who as head of prominent Gulf+Western division Paramount Pictures became the main shareholder in the USA Network when Gulf+Western transferred the network to Paramount in 1981, would increase the USA Network's relationship with the Madison Square Garden Network through a deal which included making the USA Network a source for MSG events. In December 1988, MSG Network became the first cable network to secure all local television rights to a Major League Baseball team's game, signing a 12-year deal with the New York Yankees that would give it exclusive rights to 150 games per season from 1991 through 2000. Sources placed the value of the agreement at approximately $500 million. By the early 1990s, the channel would affiliate with Prime Network. In 1994, Paramount Communications was acquired by Viacom (itself a cable giant, having once owned various cable systems in the U.S. under the Viacom Cablevision banner and also owner of MTV Networks), which in turn sold the MSG properties to Cablevision and ITT Corporation, which each held a 50% ownership stake; ITT would sell its share to Cablevision three years later.
On October 5, 2006, MSG underwent an extensive rebrand with the introduction of a new logo and graphics package, and the removal of the word "Network" from the channel's promotions. The new logo was designed by Jennifer Little for PMCD design. Since the rebrand, the channel has incorporated more entertainment-oriented programming, including concerts and professional boxing and wrestling cards that have taken place at Madison Square Garden or Radio City Music Hall (both operated by MSG Entertainment). (Full length broadcasts of Madison Square Garden WWWF/WWF wrestling shows had already been previously screened by the MSG Network since the 1970s.) In February 2010, Cablevision spun off MSG Network, the Madison Square Garden venue and other related properties into The Madison Square Garden Company.[citation needed]
In September 2015, the MSG Networks division was spun out into a separate company, with The Madison Square Garden Company maintaining ownership of the venue and related properties. The company was split further in April 2020, with the sports properties operating as Madison Square Garden Sports Corp., and the venue and entertainment properties spun out as the publicly traded Madison Square Garden Entertainment.