Editorials

TWC Reportedly Engaged In Negotiations For SportsNet LA Distribution

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The Los Angeles Dodgers won a second-consecutive National League West division title last season, but plenty of fans were left in the dark as pay-TV providers failed to agree to carriage terms with Time Warner Cable for SportsNet LA, the exclusive home of the Dodgers.



With the Dodgers well into their Cactus League schedule and Opening Day rapidly approaching, the impasse lingers on. However, according to Ronald Grover of The Street, TWC reportedly is in talks with other providers to distribute SportsNet LA:

Time Warner Cable, the country’s second-largest cable-TV operator, has begun talking with other pay-TV distributors in Los Angeles about ending an impasse to carry the Dodgers’ SportsNet LA, which has been unavailable to most of the nation’s second-largest market for more than a year.

SportsNet LA stated they were willing to enter into binding arbitration with DirecTV, which likely would’ve led to additional deals being struck with other providers, but the cable-satellite company refused.

DirecTV recently released a statement expressing hope that an agreement would soon fall into place. It came months after Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said during the Winter Meetings he believed SportsNet LA would be widely distributed come April 6 — when the Dodgers begin their regular-season schedule.

There’s been a general assumption pending mergers of AT&T with DirecTV and Comcast with TWC needed to be completed in order for significant progress in talks to be made. Should that be true, news of the FCC delaying their decision on Comcast taking control of TWC doesn’t bode well.

With the Dodgers locked in a pennant race down the stretch of last season, TWC made the final six regular-season games available on KDOC, an independent station that is carried by all providers in Southern California and can be received with an over the air antenna.

Reaching a resolution will have to come without the aid of the commissioner’s office as Rob Manfred said in mid-February he wouldn’t be getting involved.

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9 Comments

    1. Don’t try Dish TV! Dish TV is exactly the same price as Direct TV for the same package deal! I currently have Dish TV, and as soon as Direct TV, or any other network gets the Dodger channel, I will be getting that channel! I hope Direct TV does get the Dodger channel, because that’s the network I want to get! I had Direct TV for years, and I just tried Dish 2 years ago, and Direct TV is a much better network, and offers more channels in the same package, that Dish offers!

      1. Things can of course change, but a Dish Network executive said last season they didn’t intend on carrying SportsNet LA because their customers didn’t want it.

        1. I don’t understand why TWC just asks for a little less than originally planed, they will probably be taken over by Comcast, and then this would be a Comcast problem to deal with! It is not likely that Comcast will let the top brass from TWC stay at their positions, so why not go just a little lower with price! Every time the Dodger’s play, and everyday, TWC is losing money, and there looks like nothing is happening! I do not think DirectTV and the other companies, are doing this for the best for their customers, like they claim! I know they have their own sports programming that also is pricey, as they claim SNLA is, DirectTV raised their prices, after claiming that they were looking out for their customers! I do think these networks will see more of a hit this year, because people who were locked in contracts last year, will be able to switch to TCW this year! I can only get Charter where I live RC, and DirectTV, Dish, and AT&T, and if you get Charter for Cable, you can’t get TWC! It really sucks, because Any year, Vinny might want to retire, and he is Dodger’s crown jewel!

          1. The point isn’t charging a little less. The point is expecting the 95% of people who don’t care about baseball to have to pay anything to support the Dodgers. The Dodger channel is only worth what Dodger fans are willing to pay for it, that’s what T/W doesn’t seem to understand, they want to extract money from everyone with a TV for this channel. I’d pay $150 a year for the channel, but I support the stance of the operators who don’t think non baseball fans should have to pay for a channel they have no interest in. This model of cable bundling is about to be replaced with pay for what you want, sorry T/W, better figure out how to make this channel elective, and re-calculate what the channel is really worth. Nobody who doesn’t care about baseball wants their money extracted so guys like Ethier can make 30 mil a year instead of 20. At some point this had to stop, and apparently it is now,

  1. Interesting that this is considered news, as supposedly TWC said all along that they were in continuous discussions last season and even earlier this year. So guess they were lying if now it’s news they’re suddenly back at the table. Too bad no one will talk straight and tell us all what truly is the status of this, and all Dodger management ducks responsibility even though the channel and content is owned by the Dodgers. Very, very poor handling of this on all sides.

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