Cablevision serves more than 3 million customers in and around New York City, particularly Long Island, and parts of Connecticut and Northern New Jersey. Time Warner Cable serves Manhattan and nearby regions. The company has been whittling down debt it piled on to pay a special $10.9 billion dividend to separate from Time Warner Inc. And Time Warner Cable's shares have been on a roll since the split last March, giving it more valuable currency with which to buy Cablevision. Tuna Amobi, an analyst at Standard & Poor's, surmises that the Dolans also could try to spin off or sell Cablevision's cable channels, most of which will remain under a group called Rainbow Media Holdings. It halted a spinoff plan in 2004. While MSG's profit growth has sputtered, the cable channels' earnings have been steadily growing for the most part.