Free Republic

It’s a month out from the start of the Dodgers’ 2017 regular season. Do you know where your SportsNet LA channel might be? Any optimistic plans to expand distribution for the team-owned 24/7 network continues to be in a contradictory holding pattern, even as outside forces mount that some predict will ultimately break the stalemate that began four years ago. Charter Communications, which bought out Time Warner Cable last year and was ready to take a fresh approach at negotiations, concedes it does not anticipate any sort of revived agreement in the near future with any more cable or satellite...

Full title: AT&T and DirecTV colluded in an illegal plot that kept Dodgers games off the air, DOJ lawsuit alleges AT&T and DirecTV acted as ringleaders in an illegal plot against the Dodgers Channel that kept Los Angeles sports fans from watching their favorite team on television, according to a major lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Justice Department. The anti-collusion suit alleges that DirecTV -- and its corporate parent, AT&T -- shared private negotiating information in 2014 with other TV providers, including Cox Communications and Charter Communications, in order to gain a collective advantage over Time Warner Cable, which was...

As the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable invoked the name of Vin Scully in lobbying DirecTV to carry SportsNet LA, the Hall of Fame broadcaster said Wednesday he was not entirely comfortable "to have my name tossed into a negotiation.” Said Scully: “I’m pretty shy with that kind of stuff.” The beloved Scully, 88, is entering his 67th and final season as voice of the Dodgers. A TWC spokesman said Tuesday that the company had cut its asking price for the Dodgers-owned channel "especially because of the historic nature of this year, with it being Vin Scully’s final season.”

In the first major breakthrough to get Los Angeles Dodgers games carried on a major distributor outside Time Warner Cable, starting Tuesday, June 9th. SportsNet LA will be available on Charter Spectrum TV Select, Charter’s most widely subscribed to tier of service. The games will be shown on the Charter listing as channel 44 SD/ 789 HD in the LA designated market area. It will be on channel 44 SD / 773 HD in San Luis Obispo, and channel 44 SD in Porterville. For SportsNet LA’s Spanish-language game telecasts as well as its Korean-language Secondary Audio Programming (SAP) will also...

Charter Communications plans to soon begin offering the Los Angeles Dodgers TV channel, SportsNet LA, in Southern California, breaking the year-long impasse that has prevented thousands of baseball fans from watching their favorite team on TV ... "We want the Dodgers on every outlet and we are committed to making that happen," [Charter Communications Chief Executive Tom] Rutledge said ...

It appears the long, frustrating wait for Dodgers fans hoping to see their team on TV will continue indefinitely. Multiple reports Thursday indicated the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable – distributor of the Dodgers-owned SportsNet LA – was on the verge of collapsing. The merger between the companies had been viewed as a potential solution to the distribution impasse that has prevented about 70 percent of the local market from seeing the majority of Dodgers games since the start of last season. The collapse of that deal means "the status quo remains in place," said sports-media consultant...

Fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers applauded as the team was sold for $2 billion, and cheered with each expensive new addition. Now the bill is coming due. And guess who is going to pay the price? Actually, you don't need to guess. The way baseball finds ways to separate fans from their money knows no bounds... At the heart of the issue is a new regional sports network that will pay the Dodgers $8.35 billion over the next 25 years. It was created by Time Warner Cable solely to broadcast the team's games, and it's the reason the new...