Blacked-Out Knicks and Rangers Games Tied to French Billionaire’s Financial Woes

Blacked-Out Knicks and Rangers Games Tied to French Billionaire’s Financial Woes

Edited by: TJVNews.com

New York-area fans of the Knicks and Rangers who have found themselves unable to watch their favorite teams on Optimum this month can partly blame Patrick Drahi, a scandal-plagued French billionaire whose financial empire is teetering on the edge of collapse. According to a report on Friday in The New York Post, Drahi, the founder and primary shareholder of the France-based telecom giant Altice, is locked in a contract battle with Knicks owner James Dolan—just one of many issues threatening his once-mighty business holdings.

While Dolan, the CEO of Sphere Entertainment Co., is a well-known figure in the New York sports world, Drahi’s troubles extend far beyond regional broadcast disputes. As the report in The New York Post highlighted, the 61-year-old telecom mogul is embroiled in a series of scandals and financial crises that could reshape his business empire—and leave millions of customers, including Optimum subscribers, caught in the crossfire.

According to the information provided in The New York Post report, Drahi’s company, Altice, is under immense pressure due to a widening corruption scandal that has already led to major upheaval within the firm. His longtime business partner and Altice co-founder, Armando Pereira, is currently under house arrest in Portugal, facing corruption and procurement fraud charges. These allegations have resulted in the suspension or dismissal of over 15 Altice employees and the blacklisting of several vendors associated with the company.

While Drahi himself has not been charged, his close ties to Pereira have raised red flags about the governance of Altice. The New York Post reported that the scandal has shaken investor confidence and drawn regulatory scrutiny across multiple countries, adding another layer of instability to an already precarious financial situation.

Drahi’s legal troubles are not limited to the corporate world. As the report in The New York Post has uncovered, Swiss authorities are investigating him over allegations that he faked a separation from his wife in order to receive tax benefits. Additionally, Tatiana Agova-Bregou, a senior executive at Altice France, is under scrutiny for allegedly acquiring a luxury Paris apartment worth $1.78 million through questionable means.

These mounting legal concerns, coupled with Altice’s financial troubles, have contributed to Drahi’s dramatic fall from financial grace. According to the information contained in The New York Post report, his net worth, once estimated at $22 billion in 2015, has now plummeted to $7 billion—an alarming decline that draws attention to the scale of the crisis facing his business empire.

As The New York Post reported, Drahi’s biggest challenge now is saving Altice from financial ruin. With billions in loans coming due for Altice France, he has shifted from an aggressive expansion strategy to desperate damage control, attempting to restructure his empire before it is too late.

To stave off default, The New York Post report confirmed that Altice has enlisted major financial institutions—including Goldman Sachs, Lazard, BNP Paribas, and Morgan Stanley—to oversee the sale of company assets. This dramatic reversal in strategy signals just how dire Drahi’s situation has become.

“Everything is on the table… It’s all about supply and demand,” Drahi reportedly told an investor conference in London on September 6, according to The New York Post. This statement reflects his newfound willingness to part with assets in a bid to stabilize his crumbling financial empire.

Despite mounting challenges, Drahi remains defiant. In a meeting with employees last month, he insisted that “there are no structural problems” at Altice and expressed optimism that future declines in interest rates would ease the company’s financial burden. However, The New York Post reported that these reassurances ring hollow in the face of Altice USA’s crumbling market value and intensifying industry pressures.

Altice USA, the parent company of Optimum, was spun off from Altice France in 2016 and went public shortly thereafter. Drahi remains a director of Altice USA, though the company has been led by CEO Dennis Mathew since 2022. But under Drahi’s leadership, The New York Post said that Altice USA has suffered a catastrophic financial decline. Over the past five years, the company has lost nearly 92% of its value, with shares closing at just $2.81 on Friday.

A major factor in this collapse has been Altice USA’s struggle to retain customers in the face of growing competition. As The New York Post report noted, streaming services and fixed-wireless broadband providers have steadily eroded the company’s subscriber base, while telecom giants such as Verizon continue to dominate key markets, particularly in New York.

According to Jonathan Chaplin, a telecommunications analyst at New Street Research, Altice USA’s downfall is largely self-inflicted. “It is worth perhaps $14 billion [now],” Chaplin told The New York Post. “It is not so clear that they overpaid though. They engaged in a fair amount of value destruction after buying the asset.” Chaplin further suggested that had Cablevision remained independent or been purchased by a different company, it might still be worth $18 billion today—a stark contrast to Altice’s rapid decline.

Amid this financial turmoil, The New York Post reported that Drahi has refused to back down in negotiations with Dolan, CEO of Sphere Entertainment Co. The carriage agreement between Optimum and Dolan’s regional sports network expired at the end of December, and since January 1, approximately 1 million Optimum subscribers in the New York metropolitan area have been unable to watch local sports teams.

While this blackout has angered fans, The New York Post report said that Altice USA is saving more than $10 million per month by refusing to carry MSG Networks. Before the contract dispute, the company was expected to pay $127 million in annual carriage fees to Dolan’s MSG Networks, according to a financial analyst at Guggenheim Partners, cited by Sportico.

Dolan and Madison Square Garden (MSG) have accused Altice of negotiating in bad faith and deliberately refusing to submit to arbitration, arguing that the blackout is an intentional squeeze on the network. Meanwhile, Altice counters that Dolan is using the dispute as a public relations stunt to distract from his own financial problems, particularly the debt burden associated with the Sphere, his $2.3 billion entertainment venue in Las Vegas.

This is not the first time Drahi and Dolan have been at odds. As The New York Post report recalled, Drahi entered the U.S. market in 2015 when he purchased Cablevision for $17.7 billion, a deal that gave Altice a strong foothold in New York’s cable industry. This acquisition also marked the Dolan family’s exit from the cable business, which had been founded by James Dolan’s father, Charles Dolan.

Since then, however, the value of Altice USA has plummeted. The report in the New York Post attributed this decline to a mix of poor strategic decisions, shifting consumer habits, and heightened competition from streaming services and telecom rivals. The once-powerful Cablevision brand has struggled to remain relevant as the cable industry faces an existential crisis.

With Altice USA hemorrhaging value and the sports blackout frustrating Optimum customers, the outcome of the Dolan-Drahi standoff remains uncertain. The New York Post report suggested that Drahi may attempt to use the financial savings from the dispute to help stabilize Altice’s balance sheet. However, industry analysts question whether this short-term strategy will be enough to address the company’s larger problems.

For Dolan, the longer the blackout drags on, the more pressure he faces to find an alternative solution to deliver Knicks and Rangers games to fans. But as The New York Post report made clear, this battle is about more than just sports rights—it’s a high-stakes corporate war between two billionaire moguls, each trying to outmaneuver the other while their respective empires face growing uncertainty.