Optimum handed out fat raises to top executives during its bitter contract battle with James Dolan’s MSG Networks — while refusing to offer refunds despite Knicks and Rangers games being blacked out since the start of the year.
Dennis Matthew, the CEO of Optimum’s parent company Altice USA, got a bump to $1.55 million a year from $1 million, while Chief Financial Officer Marc Sirota’s base salary jumped to $650,000 from $500,000, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week.
Matthew, a former Comcast executive, was also given a target annual cash incentive award of $3 million and an annual long-term incentive target of $10 million, the SEC filings show.
Sirota is in line to receive bonuses totaling around $4.5 million.
The salary packages, which were approved by the company’s board on Feb. 4, were put into effect retroactively on Jan. 1 — the same day that an estimated 1 million Optimum households in the Tri-State area lost coverage of the Knicks and Rangers, along with the Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils.
Optimum was paying James Dolan-controlled MSGN more than $10 per subscriber to carry the channel before the contract expired in December. The company wants to renegotiate the so-called carriage fee but the two sides have remained at an impasse.
MSG Networks has accused Optimum of pocketing $10 million for each month the negotiations drag on.
“These pay increases are funded at the expense of Altice’s customers who continue to pay for programming they no longer receive,” an MSG Networks spokesperson told The Post on Wednesday:
“We stand ready to negotiate or submit to binding arbitration to immediately restore our games.”
Earlier this week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul urged both sides to reach agreement, saying that she instructed the Department of Public Service (DPS) to intervene.
The agency gave Altice five days to provide a plan to refund subscribers who paid their fees with the understanding that MSG Networks would remain on the system.
In response, Altice USA defended its position, stating that it has been actively engaging with customers to provide personalized support, including defraying the cost of purchasing access to the Gotham sports app, which costs $29.99 a month.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, along with officials from New Jersey and Connecticut, has also pressured Altice to issue refunds.
“We have been making sure our customers have solutions, spending millions of dollars to help sports fans and non-sports fans alike, helping with Gotham and migrating them to less expensive packages,” an Altice USA spokesperson told The Post on Wednesday.
The rep claimed Dolan is to blame for the contract dispute.
“The main issue is customer choice in an environment where approximately 50% of customers have not tuned into MSG Networks at all in the last year, yet MSG requires us, as a condition of carrying the network at all, to distribute and include the channel in nearly every customer’s package, regardless of interest,” the spokesperson said.
“Facts are facts: Billionaire owner James Dolan made $47,825,668 in 2024 alone across the MSG properties, and $134,709,240 over the last 3 years, all of this as he drives MSG Networks into bankruptcy.”
Altice USA was created in 2016 when the French telecom giant Altice NV acquired Cablevision from Dolan, along with Suddenlink Communications and merged them together.
The stock has tanked by more than 91% since its initial public offering in June 2017.
On Wednesday, shares of Altice USA closed down nearly 7%, at $2.70.
Altice USA has argued that MSG Networks — like other regional sports networks nationwide — doesn’t attract the same audiences as it once did. It cited Comcast’s decision to drop the channel from its Xfinity lineup in 2021.
The dispute sheds light on larger challenges in the cable television industry, particularly as more viewers move away from traditional cable subscriptions in favor of streaming services.
This shift, commonly referred to as “cord-cutting,” has created tensions between content providers and distributors over pricing and accessibility.
Dolan, the executive chairman and CEO of MSGN’s parent company Sphere Entertainment and Madison Square Garden Sports, faces a financial headache amid the ongoing blackout.
MSG Networks has been on the brink of bankruptcy and owes a group of lenders led by JPMorgan $829 million.
To stabilize its finances, MSG Networks may seek external investment, potentially from a major media company, The Post reported earlier this month.
Sphere Entertainment informed the SEC earlier this month that it reached a forbearance agreement with lenders that extends through March 29.
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