The New York Knicks and New York Rangers will get big reductions in their local media rights fees this season as part of an agreement to help their broadcaster, MSG Networks, manage substantial debt.
In SEC filings revealed Friday morning, MSG Networks reported it reached an agreement with its creditors to refinance more than $800 million in debt that came due last October, which the broadcaster has been negotiating for the last seven months. As part of that new contract, it cut media rights fees to the Knicks by 28 percent and by 18 percent to the Rangers; it will begin this season and be backdated to be effective as of Jan. 1. Both teams will also no longer receive annual rights fees increases.
The contracts with both clubs will now run through the 2028-29 season, and MSG Networks will have the right of first refusal when those deals end. The deal was originally supposed to run until 2035.
The Knicks and Rangers were set to receive roughly $180 million in rights fees this year.
MSG Networks is a part of Sphere Entertainment Co., one of several publicly traded companies run by James Dolan and his family. The regional sports network also broadcasts New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and Gotham FC games. A copy of the term sheet said that “certain other teams” it works with will also have rights fees “concessions.”
Dolan also owns the Knicks and Rangers, which are a part of MSG Sports, another publicly traded company. MSG Sports will now get the right to exercise 19.9 percent in equity in MSG Networks as part of the deal.
The new agreement ends a months-long period of uncertainty for MSG Networks. This winter, the company said that if it couldn’t renegotiate the terms of its debt then it was at risk of entering bankruptcy.
Financial analysts had already begun wondering about MSG Networks’ future, including a possible merger with YES Network, another RSN in the New York market which broadcasts New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets games. MSG Networks and YES are collaborators on Gotham Sports App, which streams games for all those teams, and a joint venture called Gotham Advanced Media and Entertainment.
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Sep 7, 2025
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