Jimmy Dolan may soon have a bidder for MSG Networks, which broadcasts games for the New York Knicks, the Rangers and the Islanders.
Dolan’s old pal John Malone is said to be eyeing the regional cable and satellite TV network as part of his master plan to own regional sports networks from Miami to New York, sources said.
Malone is the billionaire owner of Liberty Media, which owns SiriusXM and the Atlanta Braves. He is currently in the mix to buy 21 Fox-owned regional sports channels, including SportsTime Ohio and Fox Sports Florida, that Disney is selling as a regulatory condition of its $71 billion merger with Twenty-First Century Fox.
If Malone, 78, succeeds in buying the Fox RSNs, he will soon turn his attention to New York, analysts said.
“Whatever RSNs you own, you want one in the biggest market,” said Joe Favorito, a sports-marketing consultant and Columbia University professor.
“New York teams are the most popular and the most profitable,” FBN analyst Rob Routh told The Post.
The only other Big Apple contender is YES Network, which broadcasts Yankees games. But as The Post first reported earlier this month, YES is being sold to Amazon and Sinclair Broadcast Group in a deal led by the Bronx Bombers.
With YES out of the running, MSGN is the only other “game in town,” Routh added.
It doesn’t hurt that Malone and Dolan, 63, go back decades — and have been in business together before.
“Malone had known [Chuck, Jimmy’s father] Dolan since his earliest days in the industry, and he regarded himself as a friendly adviser to the family rather than an actual competitor,” author Mark Robichaux wrote in “Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business.”
When Malone turned 70 in March 2011, 84-year-old Chuck Dolan made the trip to Denver to celebrate with him.
The deal that seems to have solidified their friendship came together in the late ’90s when cable company Cablevision, which the Dolans controlled, bought a New York-area cable asset from Malone‘s company, TeleCommunications Inc.
MSGN, the country’s only publicly traded RSN, said it doesn’t “comment on rumor or speculation.”
But Dolan has tried off-loading the network before. In 2017, he put MSGN on the block only to pull back a few months later after no suitors showed up, The Post reported at the time.
Of course, Malone first has to win the 21 Fox-owned RSNs.
Liberty Media‘s buyout team includes the Atlanta Braves, the Minnesota Twins and the NBA’s Detroit Pistons.
Major League Baseball is also vying for the 21 RSNs and has teamed up with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Another contender is Ice Cube’s basketball league, Big3, which has financial support from private equity firm Centerbridge Partners, investment bank Macquarie Group and entrepreneur Carolyn Rafaelian.