Swish! Cablevision putting Madison Square Garden in the can

According to Bloomberg, an unidentified source reports that Cablevision (CVC) is getting ready to spin off its Madison Square Garden assets into a new company that will be called, oddly enough, Madison Square Garden. Cablevision stockholders will be given one share of the new company for every CVC share they own.

Madison Square Garden's assets would include the New York Knicks pro basketball team, Radio City Music Hall, the New York Rangers hockey team, and two New York-area sports networks. The wisdom of this move largely depends upon how much it charges consumers: if this is a free channel, then spinning it off will be a good move; on the other hand, if it is a premium channel, it could be a hard sell.