The Dolan family has won its battle to gain full ownership of Cablevision Systems, the US cable-TV group that also owns the famous New York venue Madison Square Garden, in a deal worth about $22 billion (£11bn), including debt.

The Dolans, controlling shareholders of the group, had failed in two previous efforts to take it private after their proposals were blocked by a two-person committee of independent board directors.

Cablevision, which supplies television, telecoms and high-speed Internet access to 3.1 million households in New York, is being squeezed by telephone companies, which are launching rival cable services, and the growth of broadband, which provides video clips, television programmes and films.

The family, led by Charles Dolan, the Cablevision chairman, and his son, the chief executive James Dolan, has argued that the intensifying competition demands "a long-term, entrepreneurial management perspective that is not constrained by the constant focus on short-term results demanded by public equity markets.”

The Dolans, which owns 22.5 per cent of the company’s shares and 70 per cent of its voting rights, will pay $36.26 a share for Cablevision, a 10 per cent premium to the company's closing price yesterday.

A sweetened $30 a share bid was rejected in January after a $27 bid in October was deemed not to represent a "fair value".

Cablevision's independent directors had also rejected a more complex proposal made by the Dolans in 2005 - to pay $21 in cash plus stock from a newly created public company containing Madison Square Garden and a group of cable channels.

Cablevision's assets also include the New York Knicks basketball team and the New York Rangers hockey team.

Shares in Cablevision rose nearly 8 per cent, to $35.22 in New York in early deals today. The stock had gained about 15 per cent so far this year before today.

Cablevision had long-term debt of $11.8 billion at the end of 2006.

Prospects for the cable sector look to be brightening, analysts said, with the two largest players giving upbeat assessments of the market.

Time Warner today beat Wall Street expectations as growth in its cable segment helped lift revenue by 9 per cent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier. Underlying revenue from cable TV was up 12 per cent on the same period last year.

Comcast has forecast cable-television revenue would grow more than analysts' estimates through 2009.

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