Jim Dolan
Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Thank you, Ari and good morning. Our company delivered solid overall results in our fiscal third quarter with total revenue of $449 million and consolidated AOCF of $100 million. These results underscore the continued robust demand from our customers and partners for our portfolio of media sports and entertainment brands and assets. We're pleased with our execution so far this year, we remain focused on ensuring that our company and its assets are well positioned for long-term success and growth. Now with this in mind, we are pursuing a tax-free a spin-off of our sports and entertainment business from our media business. We believe this separation will further enhance the long-term value creation potential of both businesses by providing each company with increased strategic flexibility to pursue its own distinct business plan. In addition, it will enable each company to have a capital structure and capital return policy that is appropriate for its business. Assuming all closing conditions are met, we currently expect to complete this transaction during calendar 2015. Gregg will have more to add to this later. Turning now to MSG Sports. The Rangers led by Glen Sather and Allen Vigneault have followed up last season's Eastern Conference Championship by capturing their First President's Trophy since 1994, were the league's best season in record. Rangers have now made the playoffs nine in the last 10 years and after defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins in an exciting first round playoffs. This series started their second round against the Islanders-Washington Capital's last night. During a disappointing Knick season, we are confident in the team's outlook given its leadership. With Phil Jackson, Steve Mills and Derek Fisher and our salary cap flexibility as well as the return of a healthy Carmelo Anthony. The Liberty led by Tina Charles and newly acquired guard Epiphany Prince is gearing up for the start of the season and we look forward to the team's June 5th, home opener against the Atlanta Dream. Meanwhile, MSG Sports continues to host a variety of memorable events for the third quarter. This included the 64th Annual NBA All Star Game, which marked the first that the Garden has hosted the event since 1998. And last week, World Class Boxing returned to MSG. The Heavyweight Champion, Wladimir Klitschko successfully defended his titles against previously undefeated top rank contender Bryant Jennings. Turning now to our media segment. Our regional sports network, MSG Network and MSG Plus were again recognized for their commitment to programming excellence was 74 New York Emmy Award Nominations. This includes 61 nominations for MSG Network, the most of any single network or station for the eighth consecutive year. MSG Networks live hockey ratings were up across the board including for the Rangers whose regular season household ratings increased 26% over last season. This was followed by 38% increase in household ratings for the Rangers first round play offs series. For the second round, the networks will continue to provide post game coverage for every Rangers matchup along with in depth hockey specials. Turning to entertainment, we are pleased with a New York Spring Spectacular our new large scale production Radio City Musical featuring The Rockettes. Large part of Radio City's legacy was built by the grand production that took place in the 1930's and 1940's and this new production is our way of bringing that back. The audiences enthusiastic responses led to multiple sold out shows and we have added performances and extended this year's limited engagement in order to meet the demand. With a show now scheduled to run through May 7, we estimate that nearly $300,000 tickets will be sold to New York Spring Spectacular this season. We have made a significant investment in the show and while we expect there will be improvement. We believe, we have created a production that can run year-after-year and become an annual tradition much like the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Meanwhile, our portfolio venues continues to play hosts to a diverse array of artist and events. It is highlighted by Billy Joel's landmark residency at The Garden, which includes 24 monthly shows announced through December and we look forward to a sold out run. On July 1, Billy took the stage for the 65th time surpassing Elton John's, 64 MSG shows and setting a new record for the most performance by an artist at the world's most famous arena. Our newest venue, The Forum in Inglewood California continues to service a premier destination for artist and music fans to like and this past quarter, hosted a number of concert and events including Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Award. The Forum has only been open for a little more than a year, is not only attracting top performers, but seeing them come back as they recognized unique artist and fan experience, the venue offers. Finally, last month we were honoured to have the Beacon Theatre service the backdrop for the opening and closing events of the Tribeca Film Festival, which was significantly expanded this year to include a new Downtown creative hub that serves as the festivals home. Our partnership with Tribeca began just prior to last year's festival. So this was the first year, we were able to truly collaborate with them and we think it was a great event. Before I turn the call over, we announced this morning that Sean is resigning his position as CFO and that his last day will be Monday. Over the past eight months, Sean has played an important role supporting the company's pursuit of the spin-off, we thank him for his service and wish him well. While the company will conduct the search for its successor. Right now, I'm very pleased to welcome Donna Coleman, who will serve as the company's Interim CFO immediately following Sean's departure. I've had the fortune of work with Donna for more than 15 years at Cablevision, while she recently retired as EVP of Corporate Financial Planning and Control. During her time with the company. Donna managed the development and coordination of the company's budget and financial planning and was actively involved in the spin-offs of both MSG and AMC's Cablevision. She's ideally suited to help us as we move forward with our plans and I'm confident that her leadership will help to ensure the company's success. I will now turn the call over to Sean.