The live TV sports calendar for the first weekend in June starts on the ice as TNT drops the puck on the NHL Stanley Cup Finals. 

TNT, along with TBS and truTV, will carry Game One of the Florida Panthers-Vegas Golden Knights NHL Stanley Cup series. The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned networks will air every game of the NHL finals after ABC aired last year’s Colorado Avalanche-Tampa Bay Lightening Stanley Cup series.

Also: TNT Hopes Its First Stanley Cup Finals Will Maintain Hockey’s Ratings Momentum

The NBA Finals continue on ABC Sunday night as the Miami Heat look to even up its series with the Denver Nuggets after losing the first game on Thursday. 

On the baseball diamond, Peacock Sunday morning will stream the St. Louis Cardinals-Pittsburgh Pirates game, while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will feature long-time interleague rivals the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Week eight of the USFL Football league begins Saturday with coverage of the Houston Gamblers-Pittsburgh Maulers game on USA Network and the Philadelphia Stars-Birmingham Stallions on NBC. Sunday’s action includes Fox’s telecasts of the Memphis Showboats-New Jersey Generals and Michigan Panthers-New Orleans Breakers games. 

On the links, CBS and the Golf Channel will offer weekend coverage of the final rounds of PGA Memorial golf tournament, while on the tennis court NBC and Tennis Channel will offer live coverage of the French Open.

In the octagon, ESPN on Saturday will televise a UFC Fight Night card featuring a main event bout between flyweights Kai Kara-France and Amir Albazi.  

Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) was beside himself at the news that Charter and Tribune had come to an agreement that puts the Dodgers back on KTLA TV Los Angeles.

Following the news, the congressman even penned a song in honor of the occasion.

"PLAY BALL! Charter Communications takes a swing at Congressman Tony Cárdenas’ (CA-29) pitch to end Dodgers TV blackout," Cárdenas’ office crowed in a statement pitched to journalists Friday (Sept. 2).

In 2014, Cárdenas and some of his L.A. delegation colleagues wrote Wheeler asking him to mediate the stalemate between TWC and other operators.

Pointing out that the first game back on air will be a Vin Scully Appreciation Day, Cárdenas quipped. “Game on! Man have I missed Vin Scully. “He’s the reason I signed up for the Congressional baseball team again this year and why I will be watching the games that will air on KTLA 5. As a legislator, I do not always get to take a swing at fun topics, but if there is anything I am proud of it is my efforts to end the Dodgers blackout in L.A. This may not be the home run my colleagues and I had been writing to FCC Chairman [Tom] Wheeler about, but it certainly gets us on base."

Then he broke into song, at least remotely, adding that for the next month he would be singing his own rendition of 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game':

Take me out to the ball game,

The Dodgers are finally on.

Buy me a TV that airs the games.

After Vin leaves it will not be the same.

Let’s root, root, root for broadcast negotiations;

If they don’t agree it’s a shame.

For it’s 1! 2! 3!... 4,5,6 games

And we’re back on in L.A!”

More fans in the Los Angeles area will finally get to see Dodgers games after all this season.

Time Warner Cable has secured an agreement to broadcast the final week of Dodger games on KDOC, an independent broadcast station carried by every cable, satellite and telco provider in Southern California.

The station, which can also be received over the air with an antenna, will transmit the signal from SportsNet LA, the Dodgers regional sports network that has been shut out from carriage during its rookie season save for on Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks systems. Time Warner Cable is handling affiliate sales for the RSN, which features the legenday broadcaster Vin Scully and televised pitcher Clayton Kershaw's historic year, including his no-hitter (pictured).

KDOC, located in Santa Ana and licensed to Ellis Communications, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Titan Broadcast Management, will air the club’s final six games. KDOC will televise a pair of three-game Dodgers sets against their rivals the San Francisco Giants from Sept. 22-24 at 7:10 p.m. (PT) over whom LA currently holds a three-game lead in the National League West, and the final series against the Colorado Rockies on Sept. 26 at 7:10 p.m., Sept. 27 at 6:10 p.m. and Sept. 28 at 1:10 p.m.

“Time Warner Cable is part of this community and we’re Dodger fans too,” said TWC COO Dinni Jain in a statement. “Angelenos love their Dodgers, and we’re happy to give them a way to watch their beloved team during this pennant chase.”

Asked whether the station deal was the result of the time buy or some marketing package, a TWC spokeswoman replied “We’re not going to discuss the specifics of the agreement with KDOC, but we are very pleased that they were willing to work with us on this so that we could put Dodger fans first.”

Time Warner Cable has said it was willing to accept outside arbitration to resolve the current carriage dispute, which has drawn comment from Capitol Hill (notably a bunch of unhappy California congressfolk) and the FCC.

Time Warner Cable launched SportsNet LA in February, but distributors, notably DirecTV, balked about the price — some reports put it $4 per sub per month or higher — especially when combined with other RSNs in the market. In addition to the DBS leader, Dish Network, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse have all sat out on the distribution sidelines this season.

After a number of California members of the House voiced their concerns about the situation, FCC Tom Wheeler gathered information about the negotiating process. In an interview with Mulitchannel News, Wheeler last week urged TWC and those MVPD's to put aside their differences and let viewers see the final games, which TWC has evidently accomplished without striking carriage deals with the providers in question.

“Right now, we can’t change the fact that other area TV distributors won’t carry the channel, but we don’t want anyone to miss this exciting pennant run,” said Jain. We hope everyone will tune in to KDOC and help us cheer on the Dodgers. We will continue to work on long-term agreements with other providers in the off season.”

"Time Warner Cable has worked hard to get other providers to carry SportsNet LA so all fans will have access to games," he added. "The company even agreed to enter into binding arbitration to secure a deal and offered to make games available during arbitration. Unfortunately, other providers have refused."

Sports Fan Coalition chairman David Goodfriend dipped into a baseball analogy to get his view of TWC's play across: "This is like sending in your starting pitcher in the 9th inning when you're down 10 runs: Too little too late. Time Warner Cable already has denied millions of Dodgers fans almost an entire season and the company will do it again next year unless something big happens.  Here's an idea:  no government action on the pending Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger until anyone in Southern California who wants to see the Dodgers games on TV can do so.  No Dodgers, no merger.  Period."

KDOC can be seen on the following channels:

(Updated: 9:45 a.m. on July 29)

A number of Democrat members of Congress from California have asked the FCC to step in and mediate the dispute between Time Warner Cable and various distributors over carriage of the SportsNet LA, the television home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, saying that they fear it could set a precedent for "vertically integrated companies to hold consumers hostage to assert unfair market dominance."

The letter comes as AT&T is trying to get Washington approval of its deal to buy DirecTV and Comcast wants approval to merge with Time Warner Cable. 

For their part, Time Warner Cable and the Dodgers said they would be amenable to entering into binding arbitration as a means to end the carriate impasse with the nation's leading DBS provider.

Time Warner Cable launched SportsNet LA in February, but many distributors have complained about the price -- some reports put the monthly license fee at more than $4 per subscriber – especially when combined with three other RSNs in the market (Prime Ticket, Fox Sports West and Time Warner Cable SportsNet), and aren't taking the network. Time Warner Cable is paying some $8.35 billion over 25 years to the Dodgers' ownership and is handling affiliate negotiations for the rookie regional sports network.

In the letter to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, the legislators said they were increasingly concerned about the absence of the net on Cox and Charter and Suddenlink and Dish and DirecTV and Verizon FiOs and AT&T U-verse Signing on to the letter were Reps. Tony Cárdenas, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Alan Lowenthal, Brad Sherman, Linda Sánchez Julia Brown, Janice Hanh and Judy Chu.

They said that past the midpoint of the season, baseball fans remained in the dark, as well as unable to hear the iconic voice of sportscaster Vin Sculley calling the games, including Clayton Kershaw's no-hitter (pictured).

"The ongoing stalemate between Time Warner Cable and other pay-TV providers has reached a point where mediation by the FCC is necessary," they said. "Ensuring that homes throughout Los Angeles County have access to the broadcast of Dodgers games regardless of which cable or satellite company provides service in their areas is very important," they said.

For its part, Time Warner Cable said it is open to a legal assist, relative to DirecTV: "We are willing to enter into binding arbitration with DirecTV, and we appreciate the Congressman’s concern for Dodger fans. We prefer to reach agreements through private business negotiations, but given the current circumstance, we are willing to agree to binding arbitration and to allow DirecTV customers to watch the Dodgers games while the arbitration is concluded."

Noted Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten: “First, we'd like to thank the members of the California delegation, especially Congressman Brad Sherman, for putting our fans and their constituents first and doing their best to move this situation forward. We're very pleased that our partners at Time Warner Cable have readily agreed to submit SportsNet LA to binding arbitration, and we urge DirecTV to quickly agree so that we can get these games on the air for their customers.”

DirecTV was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday morning.

An FCC spokesperson on July 28 was checking on whether the chairman had received the letter at press time, but the commission is historically very reluctant to get in the middle of carriage disputes, even at the behest of Congress, beyond keeping in touch with the parties or adding its voice to th call for resolution in the interests of consumers.

While Clayton Kershaw’s no-hitter played out before 46,069 in Dodger Stadium and another 52,000 on embattled regional sports network, SportsNet LA , presumably a few other Angelenos that don’t subscribe to Time Warner Cable were able to check out the southpaw’s mastery on Wednesday.

MLB Network cut into the action as Kershaw was in the process of chalking up 15 strikeouts and mowing the Colorado Rockies down, save for the Hanley Ramirez throwing error that enabled Corey Dickerson to reach first, leading off the seventh inning.

MLBN scored with 387,000 watchers in the 10 p.m. (PT) quarter hour on June 18, when Kershaw was putting the finishing touches on his gem.  That more than doubled the network’s national primetime average of 195,000 that night, according to Nielsen data. No doubt some in LA DMA, who don’t count Time Warner Cable as their video provider, tuned some of Kershaw's exploits on MLBN..

Baseball’s in-house network can present live cut-ins of game action at any time, save for when contests are airing nationally on Fox or ESPN.

In addition to TWC, Bright House Networks in the Bakersfield, Calif. area  market is the only other distributor to offer  SportsNet LA. (the nation’s No. 2 cable operator negotiates programming deals for BHN).  Other area providers, notably DirecTV, Dish Network, Cox , Charter, Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse, have yet to reach affiliate pacts with SportsNet LA, which is reportedly seeking a monthly subscriber fee in excess of $4 per month for its rookie year. TWC is handing affiliate negotiations as part of a record 25-year, $8.35 billion deal with the Dodgers.

Last season, Dodgers’ telecasts averaged 225,000 viewers on Fox-owned Prime Ticket.