MSG Networks and its lenders have gotten a weeklong extension to negotiate on more than $800 million in debt that has been due since October.
The sports broadcaster, loan agent JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the lenders now have until April 2 to find a fix for the debt, extending a previous March 26 deadline, according to a filing Thursday from MSG’s parent company, Sphere Entertainment Co.
The broadcaster is among a number of media companies struggling to overhaul their debt load as viewership moves online. Earlier in the year, MSG Networks had to renegotiate the terms of its deal with Altice USA after the latter dropped MSG Networks from its Optimum cable-TV lineup. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Sphere’s two channels, MSG and MSG Sportsnet, broadcast games from teams such as the New York Knicks and Rangers, the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils, as well as some New York Giants and Buffalo Bills games.
Without a refinancing deal or workaround, “it is probable that MSG Networks and/or its subsidiaries would seek bankruptcy protection or the lenders would foreclose on the MSG Networks collateral securing the credit facilities,” Sphere said in its quarterly report earlier this month.
