Father-Son Tension Flares at Cablevision

The father-son power struggle at Cablevision Systems Corp. flared up Wednesday when Charles Dolan, the 78-year-old founder, appointed four new directors to replace key board members who had voted last month to close down his pet satellite TV project.

Cable analysts and insiders said Dolan’s maneuver was a direct swipe at his son, Cablevision Chief Executive James Dolan, 49, who led the campaign to pull the plug on Voom, the fledgling satellite television venture his father has championed.

Analysts said the new board members were unlikely to fund Voom, which is in the process of closing down. But the new board might allow the elder Dolan, Cablevision’s controlling shareholder, to personally buy Voom’s remaining assets. To do that, he would probably push to sell the company.

“Maybe Jimmy doesn’t want that because he’d be out of a job,” said Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Fulcrum Global Partners.

Based in Bethpage, N.Y., Cablevision owns valuable cable systems in New York and Long Island as well as Madison Square Garden, the New York Rangers hockey team and Knickerbockers basketball team, and networks such as Fuse, American Movie Classics and Independent Film Channel.

In a statement Wednesday, Charles Dolan said that he was exercising his right as the controlling shareholder to nominate and elect 75% of the board’s directors.

Dolan appointed some fellow cable pioneers including Liberty Media Corp. Chairman John Malone and Leonard Tow, founder of Century Communications Corp., the largest cable provider in Los Angeles prior to its sale to Adelphia Communications Corp.

Also appointed was Frank Biondi, a money manager who as chief executive of Viacom Inc. in the mid-1990s sold Madison Square Garden and the two sports teams to Cablevision and its partner at the time, ITT Corp. ITT was then headed by Rand Araskog, the fourth appointment.

The four men replaced Sheila Mahony, a former Cablevision executive; William Bell, a former Cablevision vice chairman; investment banker Steven Rattner; and the late John Tatta, Cablevision’s co-founder.