Cablevision
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| Cablevision Systems Corporation
<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align:center; padding:16px 0 16px 0;"> | |
| Type | Public (NYSE: CVC |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1973 |
| Headquarters | Bethpage, New York, USA
<tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Key people</th><td>Charles Dolan, Chairman |
- For other uses, see Cablevision (disambiguation).
Cablevision Systems Corporation is an American cable television company that serves parts of the Northeast of the United States, with most customers residing in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Cablevision also offers high-speed Internet connections (Optimum Online), as well as digital cable (iO), and VoIP phone service (Optimum Voice) through its Optimum brand name. Furthermore, Cablevision now offers Optimum Online Wi-Fi, which is available throughout the country to existing Optimum Online customers.
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[edit] Sports holdings
Cablevision owns the Madison Square Garden arena in New York City, including the professional sports teams that play there—the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, and New York Liberty. The same company also owns the Hartford Wolf Pack, a minor-league professional hockey team affiliated with the Rangers, and operates (but does not own) two Connecticut sports venues, the Hartford Civic Center Coliseum and Rentschler Field.
Cablevision's sports holdings also include TV rights for the Knicks, Rangers, Liberty, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Red Bull New York. These games are aired on their MSG Network and FSN New York cable channels. Cablevision previously had the rights to the New York Yankees, New Jersey Nets and New York Mets, who left to start their own channels. Cablevision previously attempted to purchase the Yankees, Mets and Boston Red Sox, in part, to control their broadcast rights. Cablevision also owns Fox Sports Net affiliates in other markets.
[edit] Other Cablevision properties
Other properties that are owned by Cablevision include Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theater [1], Clearview Cinemas, and a satellite television company called Voom, which shut down on April 30, 2005, but lives on as a series of High-definition television channels available on Dish Network. The company is based in Bethpage, New York on Long Island and is headed by the Dolan family, who reside on Long Island.
[edit] Cablevision's role in the West Side Stadium debate
In 2004 and 2005, Cablevision provided funding for an advertising campaign against the proposed construction of a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan supported by the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. The stadium would have principally served the New York Jets, and was an essential part of New York City's failed bid for the 2012 Olympics. Cablevision had offered a competitive bid that far exceeded the bid of the Jets for property owned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, where the new stadium would have been located. The plans to build the stadium were abandoned in June 2005 when the New York State Assembly under the leadership of Speaker Sheldon Silver refused to provide state subsidies for the project.
[edit] Products and services
[edit] Carriage disputes
Cablevision earned notoriety in the New York City area for playing hardball with the YES Network in 2002 and 2003. Cablevision refused to carry the Yankees' official television network, depriving Yankee fans of telecasts of most of their games for the entire 2002 season. Pressure from federal and state officials finally convinced Cablevision to sign a carriage deal just before the 2003 season started.
Cablevision has also never carried the NFL Network, as the company has stated that it would like to be able to carry NFL Sunday Ticket (which is, by contract, exclusive to DirecTV until the 2011 season) before it carries NFL Network.
Cablevision is also currently in a dispute with Verizon over the carriage of MSG Network and Fox Sports Net New York on its FiOS television systems. Verizon has sued Cablevision because they claim that Cablevision does not want to make their valuable local sports coverage available to an emerging competitor to their cable systems. Those networks are available on DirecTV and Dish Network.
[edit] Corporate governance
Current members of the board of directors of Cablevision are: Charles Dolan, James Dolan, Patrick Dolan, Rand Araskog, Frank Biondi, Charles Ferris, Richard Hochman, Victor Oristano, Thomas Reifenheiser, John R. Ryan, Brian Sweeney, Vincent Tese, Leonard Tow. In 2006, the Dolan family announced a plan to purchase the company and privatize it, after a failed attempt in 2005, which would have spun off Rainbow Media as a publicly traded company. Cablevision is traded under the ticker symbol CVC on the New York Stock Exchange.
[edit] Subsidiaries
- Rainbow Media Holdings LLC owns a series of local and national cable networks including IFC, AMC, Fuse, News 12 and MSG Network.
- Cablevision once owned now defunct Nobody Beats The Wiz chain.
[edit] External links
- Cablevision website
- Optimum website
- iO (Interactive Optimum) Digital Cable Television Service
- Optimum Online High-speed broadband Cable Internet Service
- Optimum Voice Digital Phone Service
- Interview (March 7, 2005) about possible sale of Cablevision
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