Sports fans may not realize it, but they owe a lot to Joe Cohen. The New York native played an outsized role in the creation and evolution of sports television, creating cable networks and shepherding legendary sports franchises over the course of his decades-long career.
When it came time to write his master’s thesis at Wharton, Cohen needed a topic. His adviser recommended choosing a subject he was passionate about. That meant sports. His thesis discussed how the Flyers and 76ers competed for Philadelphia’s leisure-time dollar. Cohen began to think about going into the sports business.
He joined Madison Square Garden in 1970 as assistant to the VP of operations. Cohen’s childhood dream of being a hockey goalie “didn’t last long. But I found another way to get into the games without having to pay.” One of his assignments in the early days was acting as butler for Muhammed Ali before his first fight with Joe Frazier.
In 1975, satellite transmission changed the picture for sports TV. Madison Square Garden Sports Network launched nationally in 1977 (distributed by UA Columbia Cable and eventually USA Network), preceded by separate regional sports channel MSGN.
It was an exciting time to enter the cable business. With Bob Rosencrans and Kay Koplovitz, Cohen, as president of MSG Network, co-founded USA Network as the successor to Madison Square Garden Sports Network. The trio negotiated the first-ever cable broadcast contracts with the NBA, NHL, and Major League Baseball for USA Network, prompting the leagues to re-think copyright ownership and facilitating more nationwide league distribution contracts.
As CEO of Hughes Television Network in the late 1970s, he implemented scrambling of backhaul signals, which allowed the major leagues to create out-of-market TV packages.
Cohen left MSG and MSG Network in 1985 to launch an investment group that bought Hughes Television Network and took him to the west coast and ownership of Z Channel. From 1993 to 1995, he was back in hockey as chairman and co-owner of the LA Kings. Keeping the team afloat through the first NHL lockout was one of the biggest challenges of his career.
Cohen returned to Madison Square Garden as executive vice president in the late 90s. He was again responsible for MSGN, sparking the acquisition and integration of Fox Sports Net New York, and MSGN’s pioneering development of HDTV, closed captioning and secondary audio.
Now on his third tour of duty with MSG, Cohen is also chairman and CEO of sports and media consulting group West Ridge Associates as well as president of The Switch Sports, a broadcast transmission facilities provider that transmits all professional games for ESPN. He serves on the board of directors of Madison Square Garden Sports and AMC Networks.
His advice is simple and pithy: “Treat everybody with the same respect. If you’re going to say something, mean it and do it. I don’t want to embarrass the person at the other side of the table. Try to make sure it works for both sides. I haven’t always won, but I’ve won enough to be successful.”
