Time Warner-Comcast Merger Falling Apart Won't Help Dodgers Game Actually Air in LA
By Mike Cardillo
One of the nice technological advances in modern life is that if you’re a baseball fan and want to watch an out-of-market game, it’s possible with no more than a few taps on your phone or tablet thanks to the MLB.com At Bat app. That is, unless you’re a Dodgers fan in Los Angeles who doesn’t have Time Warner Cable.
The Dodgers remain one of the best teams in baseball, but according to the Orange County Register, almost 70 percent of cable or satellite subscribers in the Los Angeles area are unable to watch locally and not even through the app due to local blackout restrictions. Back in 2013, the Dodgers made headlines with a 25-year cable deal worth over $8 billion — part of the reason the team sports the highest payroll in 2015 at well over $200 million. That deal, through Time Warner, launched SportsNet-LA and as of now that channel is only available on Time Warner since distributors don’t want to meet the reported price of over $3 per subscriber for the channel.
There was hope that a proposed deal to merge Time Warner with Comcast might facilitate greater distribution for SNLA, but the merger fell through this week, leaving all sides scrambling for solutions. This particular quote from the Register from media rights adviser Chris Bevilacqua doesn’t sound promising: “Unfortunately it’s back to the drawing board.”
As we know in 2015, live sports programming is increasingly valuable for all broadcasters. 150+ Dodgers games is prime televised real estate, especially in a city the size of Los Angeles. It’s too bad corporate arguing over how much that real estate is worth ends up screwing over the fans in the process who just want to watch their favorite team play.