MSG Sportsnet


MSG Sportsnet is an American regional sports network owned by Sphere Entertainment; it operates as a sister channel to MSG Network. The network serves the New York City metropolitan area, whose reach expands to cover the entire state of New York, Northern New Jersey, Southwestern Connecticut and Northeastern Pennsylvania; MSG Sportsnet carries sports events from several of the New York area's professional sports franchises, as well as college sports events.
The channel was first established in 1976 by Cablevision as Cablevision Sports 3; the channel later rebranded as SportsChannel New York, and became the charter affiliate of an eponymous chain of regional sports networks. The channel became a sister to MSG Network in 1995 after Cablevision acquired the Madison Square Garden company. In 1998, the channel—along with the remainder of the SportsChannel chain—was relaunched as part of Fox Sports Networks, later becoming FSN New York. In March 2008, the channel rebranded as MSG Plus to closer align it with its parent channel; the service later dropped FSN programming.

History

SportsChannel New York

MSG+ originally launched in 1976 as Cablevision Sports 3, a local sports network owned by Cablevision and available to their subscribers on Long Island. When it debuted, the network had agreements to carry the home games of the New York Islanders and New York Nets. The service was renamed SportsChannel New York in March 1979. The next month, both the New York Yankees and New York Mets signed agreements with SportsChannel. SportsChannel would also gain the New Jersey Devils when the team relocated in 1982.
As the original SportsChannel was growing in popularity in New York City, Cablevision eventually decided to form a new group of regional sports networks under the SportsChannel brand, with SportsChannel New York serving as the flagship charter affiliate. The expansion began with Cablevision's purchase of PRISM New England, a Boston-based premium channel previously owned by Spectacor, which was rechristened as SportsChannel New England on January 1, 1983. Other SportsChannel networks launched between throughout the 1980s and early 1990s in markets such as San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
Throughout most of its history SportsChannel was operated as a joint-venture. The Washington Post became a partner in SportsChannel in 1983, gaining 50% interest in the networks. In 1984, CBS also entered the partnership in a deal that gave each of the three companies a one-third interest. The Washington Post and CBS sold back their shares to Rainbow in 1987.
In December 1988, Cablevision announced that it would form a joint venture with NBC to operate the cable networks owned by the respective companies, including SportsChannel. Through this partnership, SportsChannel acquired the cable television rights to the National Hockey League, which aired several games involving non-New York area teams on the SportsChannel regional networks at times when no games involving local teams were set to air and served as the programming cornerstone for national sister network SportsChannel America.
SportsChannel New York lost the broadcast rights to the Yankees to the MSG Network, then its main competitor, after the 1988 season. This led to a lengthy dispute between Cablevision and MSG that resulted in the network being removed by the provider, resulting in many Cablevision subscribers not being able to see MSG's Yankees telecasts during the 1989 season.
In March 1995, Cablevision and ITT Corporation purchased Madison Square Garden and its properties which included the Knicks, the Rangers, and the MSG Network; giving Cablevision broadcast rights to all professional New York-area sports teams. On April 25, 1995, NBC sold its 50% interest in SportsChannel New York to Rainbow Media for US$93 million, citing that "owning a piece of SportsChannel New York made less sense" after Cablevision and ITT purchased MSG.

FSN New York

On June 30, 1997, Fox/Liberty Networks—a joint venture between News Corporation and Liberty Media -- purchased a 40% interest in the SportsChannel networks, Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers from Cablevision. The deal was intended to expand the reach of Fox Sports Net—a group of regional sports networks launched by Fox/Liberty in November 1996 through News Corporation's purchase of Liberty's Prime Network—by integrating the SportsChannel networks into the group; SportsChannel New York would also be rebranded as Fox Sports New York, while MSG would also become an FSN outlet, while retaining its existing brand.
National Sports Partners, the venture formed through Cablevision's entry into the News Corporation/Liberty partnership to operate the existing and newly acquired Fox Sports owned-and-operated regional networks, later announced that the other SportsChannel networks would be relaunched under the "Fox Sports Net" banner. Prior to the deal with Cablevision, FSN programming had aired on then-independent station WBIS-TV during its S+ era, where it carried a hybrid of sporting and business programming; by June 1998 the station dropped the format and eventually became WPXN-TV ; FSN programming was subsequently picked up by SportsChannel in the run-up to the relaunch as FSNY, with SportsChannel's own national programming being discontinued in favor of Fox's programming. The last event broadcast on the network as SportsChannel New York aired on January 27, 1998, was an NBA game between the New Jersey Nets and Denver Nuggets at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver.
SportsChannel New York officially became Fox Sports New York the following day on January 28, with the first event aired as a Fox Sports Net outlet that evening being an NBA game between the Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers at Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California. Five of the seven other remaining SportsChannel networks relaunched as member networks of Fox Sports Net later that week. The network was later rebranded as Fox Sports Net New York in 2000, as part of a collective brand modification of the FSN networks under the "Fox Sports Net" banner.
In April 2002, Fox Sports Net New York began sharing the broadcast rights to the Mets with MSG, as the newly launched YES Network took the regional television rights to the Yankees and Nets from FSN. In 2004, the channel shortened its name to FSN New York, through the networks' de-emphasis of the "Fox Sports Net" brand.
On February 22, 2005, Cablevision and News Corp agreed to trade several sports-related assets. Cablevision acquired majority control in Fox Sports New York, Fox Sports Chicago, Madison Square Garden and its associated properties, and a 50% share of Fox Sports New England; News Corp, meanwhile, received Cablevision's ownership stakes in Fox Sports Ohio and Fox Sports Florida.
In 2005, the Mets announced that it would launch its own sports network to carry the team's games after FSN New York's contract with the team expired; SportsNet New York became the Mets new cable home when it launched in April 2006, at the start of that year's regular season. As a result of losing the Yankees, Nets, and Mets over the span of three years, FSN New York and MSG went from being the sole rightsholders to seven of the New York area's major sports franchises to only four.

MSG+/MSGSN

On February 26, 2008, Cablevision announced that it would rebrand FSN New York as MSG Plus, restructuring it as a spin-off of MSG Network. The last event to air under the FSN New York banner was a college basketball game between the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers and the Robert Morris Colonials from Moon Township, Pennsylvania on March 9.
The network was rebranded as MSG+ at 7:00 p.m. on March 10, beginning with its broadcast of an exhibition tennis match at Madison Square Garden between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras.
In February 2010, Cablevision spun off MSG Network and MSG+ into The Madison Square Garden Company. After News Corporation acquired a stake in the channel, rights to FSN national programming moved to YES Network.
On September 26, 2022, MSG Plus rebranded as MSG Sportsnet, as the "Plus" suffix has largely become synonymous with streaming services. MSG would announce a streaming service under the MSG Plus branding in March 2023.
On August 28, 2024, MSG Networks, along with the YES Network announced a combined streaming app for their teams called the Gotham Sports App. Their television rights are not affected.

Programming

Professional sports

MSGSN holds the regional broadcast rights to the NHL's New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders. MSG Sportsnet also serves an overflow feed in the event that multiple local teams whose games would normally be televised on MSG are playing at the same time. In turn, through MSG's regional television rights agreements, MSG Sportsnet also broadcasts certain NHL games involving the New York Rangers and Major League Soccer games featuring the New York Red Bulls not broadcast by its parent network. MSG Sportsnet also carries a large proportion of Buffalo Sabres games available to subscribers in most of upstate New York.
The network carries New York Rangers and Red Bulls games, which mainly air on MSG, in the event that its parent network is scheduled to air a Knicks or Liberty game at times when MSGSN is not carrying games of its main local teams. Games respectively involving the Knicks and Liberty earn higher ratings on MSG than those involving the Rangers or Red Bulls, and rarely air on MSGSN as a result. This is also the case with MSG, as the Islanders or Devils air on that network in lieu of MSGSN, when those teams play simultaneously at times none of MSG's main contracted teams are playing.
Since the start of 2006–07 NBA and NHL seasons, some Rangers telecasts have aired on MSGSN even when there is a conflict with an Islanders and/or Devils telecast, resulting in these games being relocated to MSG2 and/or MSGSN 2. In addition, when the Knicks are not in contention for the NBA Playoffs and the Rangers are contending for the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Rangers telecast usually airs on MSG and the Knicks telecast on MSG2, or vice versa in either case.