Cablevision Expected to Buy Producer of ‘Rockettes’ Show

NEW YORK — Cablevision Systems Corp. is buying the company that produces the famous Rockettes shows at New York’s landmark Radio City Music Hall, sources close to the companies said Wednesday.

“The deal is done,” one source said of the transaction, in which Cablevision will acquire Radio City Productions--the company that owns the Rockettes show and has 175 dancers in six cities in the United States.

Cablevision, a major cable television operator based in nearby Woodbury, N.Y., already owns Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks professional basketball team and the New York Rangers professional hockey team.

Neither Radio City nor Cablevision officials would comment on the reports, although they scheduled a news conference for Wednesday afternoon.

Radio City Productions, which also presents a variety of concerts and other shows at the 5,901-seat Radio City Music Hall, is a unit of Rockefeller Group Inc., part of Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd.

Tishman Speyer Inc., which is part of a consortium that owns Radio City Music Hall, will award a new 25-year lease to Cablevision as part of the deal, one source said. The current lease was set to expire in January.

Cablevision also has agreed to invest $25 million for improvements to the famous hall in Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan, according to the source.

Cablevision’s stock rose $1 to close at $83.13 on the American Stock Exchange.