Charter Communications has indeed freed its L.A. Dodgers regional sports network, SportsNet LA, from its pay TV shackles, but there's a big catch. 

Only Charter One customers — those who bundle Spectrum-branded home internet and mobile services through this promotion — can access Dodgers games that are not nationally televised without a pay TV subscription. 

Everyone else who wants to follow the Dodgers and their $700-million signee, Shohei  Ohtani, needs to get linear video subscription.

Starting with Wednesday's Major League Baseball 2024 season opener from Seoul, Korea, a 5-2 Dodgers victory over the San Diego Padres, Spectrum One customers could watch the game for free via this MLB.tv link or the MLB app.

Also read: Charter DTC Offerings For Lakers and Dodgers Should Launch Ahead of 2023-24 NBA Season, Cost as Much as $30 a Month

Charter said last July that it planned "to launch a direct-to-consumer (DTC) alternative for its own Regional Sports Networks (RSNs), Spectrum SportsNet and Spectrum SportsNet LA, which will be made available to all affiliate subscribers for free."

Based on the term "direct-to-consumer," the assumption was that the Lakers' SportsNet and the Dodgers' SportsNet LA would both be offered as standalone streaming services, available to Southern Californians sans pay TV. 

And last October, Charter launched a $19.99-a-month direct-to-consumer iteration of sibling RSN Spectrum SportsNet, allowing any and all Southern California-area NBA fans — with or without a pay TV subscription — to stream non-nationally televised Lakers games via NBA.com or the NBA app. 

But beyond Spectrum One and Spectrum TV subscribers, in order to see more than 140 regular season Dodgers games on television, local fans will still need a DirecTV or Cox Communications linear pay TV bundle that includes SportsNet LA in it. 

SportsNet LA was formed 11 years ago on the back of a 25-year, $8.35 billion deal between the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable, which was acquired by Charter in 2016. 

The availability of RSN has long been a sore spot for Dodgers fans.

It wasn't until 2020 that SportsNet LA became accessible via Southern California's second largest pay TV carrier, DirecTV. 

Major League Baseball will launch its first ever Wild Card Series round of postseason games Friday, with ESPN, ABC and ESPN2 airing all games from four, best-of-three game series.

The new format, which added new Wild Card teams in both the American and National Leagues, debuts October 7 with first games of four three-game series: Cleveland Guardians-Tampa Bay Rays on ESPN; St. Louis Cardinals-Philadelphia Phillies on ABC; Toronto Blue Jays-Seattle Mariners on ESPN; and New York Mets-San Diego Padres on ESPN, according to network officials. 

Saturday's games include Tampa Bay-Cleveland (ESPN2), Seattle-Toronto (ESPN), San Diego-Mets (ESPN) and Philadelphia-St. Louis (ESPN2). 

If necessary, Sunday’s games start with Seattle-Toronto (ABC), Tampa Bay-Cleveland (ESPN), San Diego-Mets (ESPN) and Philadelphia-St. Louis (ESPN2).

The winners of the two American League Wild Card Series will play the two highest-seed division champions, the New York Yankees and Houston Astros, while the National League Wild Card series winners will face the top-seeded division champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves. ■ 

ESPN will shine a light on the 1970s rivalry between baseball's New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers in a new documentary set to premiere September 27. 

The documentary, Yankees-Dodgers: An Uncivil War, follows the story of the two legendary franchises as they met in back-to-back World Series in 1977 and 1978. The documentary, produced by Mark Shapiro and Peter Guber, highlights a rivalry filled with colorful characters, seismic controversies and unforgettable moments, said the network. 

Yankees-Dodgers: An Uncivil War features interviews with former Yankees and Dodgers players including Reggie Jackson, Steve Garvey, Ron Guidry, Bucky Dent, Tommy John, Willie Randolph, Ron Cey, Dusty Baker and Graig Nettles, as well as writers and reporters who covered the teams at the time, ESPN said.

“I love baseball and I love heavyweight boxing ... the chance to do a heavyweight fight in baseball was irresistible,” Guber said. “There was no ‘crying in baseball’ unless you were the loser in the ’70s of the Dodgers vs. Yankees uncivil war.” ■ 

Legendary baseball announcer Vin Scully died Tuesday. He was 94.

In addition to having called Los Angeles Dodgers games for 67 years, stretching back to when the team was in Brooklyn before moving to the West Coast in 1957, Scully was known for his ability to both keep track of the action on the field while telling detailed and insightful stories about ballplayers and other subjects at the same time.

Scully began his broadcasts with a cheery greeting. “Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good afternoon to you wherever you may be.” 

He retired after the 2016 season.

“Today we mourn the loss of a legend in our game. Vin was an extraordinary man whose gift for broadcasting brought joy to generations of Dodger fans,” said Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred. “In addition, his voice played a memorable role in some of the greatest moments in the history of our sport.  I am proud that Vin was synonymous with Baseball because he embodied the very best of our National Pastime.  As great as he was as a broadcaster, he was equally great as a person.”

Nationally, Scully announced three World Series, calling moments including Kirk Gibson’s home run to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. He also called four All-Star Games for NBC, batted cleanup for NBC’s Game of the Week and was at the mike when Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run, topping Babe Ruth.

He also broadcast football games and golf matches for CBS Sports. In 1970, ABC wanted Scully to do Monday Night Football, but his commitment to the Dodgers prevented that.

Scully was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

“The broadcast industry lost one of its greats in the passing of Vin Scully, whose legendary play-by-plays and passion for the game of baseball touched the lives of generations," said National Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt. "He is an American icon who elevated the art of sportscasting and whose legacy lives on in his many contributions to broadcasting and among his legions of fans. We offer our deepest condolences to his family, friends and fans.” ■

Sports fans will have plenty to watch this weekend as the World Series marches on, the UFC offers a major pay-per-view event and the Big Ten returns to the football field.

After splitting the first two games, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays each look to take control of the 2020 World Series this weekend beginning with game three Friday night followed by game four Saturday night and game five on Sunday--all airing live on Fox broadcasting. The Dodgers are looking to win their first World Series since 1988, while the Rays are looking to take home the series trophy for the first time in franchise history. 

Also on tap this weekend is the UFC 254 mixed martial arts pay-per-view event from Abu Dhabi featuring a Khabib Nurmagomedov-Justin Gaethje lightweight championship main event. ESPN Plus will distribute the fight card to subscribers of the streaming service in a rare 2 p.m. (ET) start time.

The Big Ten Conference will kick off its 2020 season on Friday with Wisconsin facing Illinois on the Big Ten Network. Other big nationally televised Big Ten weekend matchups include Saturday’s Ohio State-Nebraska game on Fox. The 14-team conference last month decided to launch a conference-only football schedule after initially announcing in August that it would not play this season due to coronavirus concerns. 

The NFL has switched NBC’s Oct. 25 Sunday Night Football telecast to the Seattle Seahawks-Arizona Cardinals game from its originally scheduled Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Las Vegas Raiders contest after the Raiders placed several players on its COVID-19/reserve list. The league said the move was made to ensure a game would be played on Sunday night even though the Raiders-Buccaneers game is still scheduled to be played Sunday afternoon, according to ESPN.com.

For a list of live, televised sports events this weekend, click here.

Fox Sports’ coverage of the 2020 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays debuts tonight (Oct. 20) on Fox broadcasting and Fox Deportes.

The 116th edition of the Fall Classic will be played at a neutral site -- Globe Life Field in Arlington Tx -- for the first time ever due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. The league will allow up to 11,500 fans to attend each game. 

Game two of the series will be played tomorrow (Oct. 21), with games three, four and five (if necessary) set for Oct. 23-Oct. 25. If necessary, game six and seven will take place on Oct. 27 and Oct. 28, respectively. 

Along with Fox broadcasting, MLB.TV subscribers will be able to stream the games live, while MLB Network will provide extensive live coverage of each game. 

The Dodgers will be making their third World Series appearance in the last four years, while the Tampa Bay Rays will be making their second appearance ever in the fall classic. The team lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008.  

ESPN drew a record 4 million viewers for its New York Yankees-Washington Nationals Major League Baseball opening night telecast.

The game was the most watched regular season game on any network since 2011, and bested the previous record of 3.7 million viewers set by the St. Louis Cardinals-Chicago Cubs game in 2017, according to Nielsen. 

Last year’s Boston Red Sox-Seattle Mariners season opening night telecast drew 1.2 million viewers, said Nielsen.

ESPN’s San Francisco Giants-Los Angeles Dodgers telecast averaged 2.7 million viewers, making it the most watched ESPN late night game ever.

Both games opened baseball’s truncated 60-game regular season schedule after the coronavirus pandemic delayed baseball’s traditional season start by three months. 

Last night’s Houston Astros-Los Angeles Dodgers World Series Game Seven telecast on Fox hit a social media home run, generating more than 26 million online interactions according to Nielsen.

The Astros’ 5-1 victory over the Dodgers to win a thrilling World Series drew a whopping 26.1 million interactions across Facebook and Twitter from 8 million unique social media accounts, according to Nielsen’s Social Content Ratings Daily List.

ESPN Deportes and FS1’s UEFA Champions League Soccer coverage drew 303,000 interactions to finish a distant second. 

On the entertainment front, the CW’s Riverdale was the most talked about series on Tuesday with 157,000 social media interactions, according to Nielsen.

More than 5 million viewers tuned into TBS last night to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Chicago Cubs to win baseball's National League Championship Series, according to Nielsen.

TBS' game five NLCS coverage -- in which the Dodgers defeated the Cubs 11-1 to secure a trip to the World Series -- generated 5.2 million viewers, up 84% over game five of the 2016 Toronto Blue Jays-Cleveland Indians American League Championship series, according to TBS.

The game also drew more than 6.5 million Twitter and Facebook interactions across 2.5 million unique social media accounts, according to Nielsen.

Overall, the Dodgers-Cubs series averaged 6.2 million viewers, up 88% over TBS’ Jays-Indians coverage, according to the network.

It was the best of times and the worst of times for Major League Baseball. The Chicago Cubs won the World Series after a 108-year absence, the Cleveland Indians almost won the World Series after a 68-year drought and Fox reversed their long-standing ratings decline for the Fall Classic… AND, got a Game 7 for the ages! Further, in a testament to the influence and social impact team sports can have, a reported 5 million people came out for the victory parade through the streets of Chicago land. The best of times for Cubs fans, no doubt.

But on the morning of Game 7, the worst of times were represented when the Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust action against DirecTV Group Holdings LLC and AT&T for violating Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The complaint states that DirecTV colluded with other Southern California MVPDs against distributing the Dodgers Channel since its inception. Amidst a myriad of intricate details and testimony, the DOJ complaint paid little attention to the fact Time Warner Cable guaranteed the Dodgers a big increase in rights fees, shattering MLB's RSN economics like a fastball does a poorly milled bat. Or that the impasse has protected existing subscribers from an additional $3+ dollar per month on their So Cal bills.

My guess is there are some Cable Hall of Fame MVPD programming execs that understand and, in some private manner, appreciate the extraordinary commitment it takes to withstand sports network carriage battles. And while the inside baseball on the DOJ action is likely a brush back pitch for the pending AT&T-Time Warner merger approval process, they may want to take the time to look at the good ‘ole expanded basic bundle and run some quick numbers on the level of sports expense included in such.

It would also appear that the postgame fireworks are just getting started. Adding to this hardball madness: it's been long rumored that the Cubs' owners want their own RSN. Early this year, TheChicago Tribune’s Mark Gonzales even penned an article headlined “New TV arrangement at forefront of Cubs' business decisions.”Mr. Gonzales’s piece didn’t make any mention of the current standoff between Comcast and YES Network, which has now entered year two and has benched Yankees (and New Jersey Nets) games for nearly 1 million Comcast subscribers in the New York and Hartford DMAs. Likewise, nothing about the extra innings distribution marathon the Baltimore Orioles encountered launching MASN, or any mention of failed MLB team owned RSNs in Houston and Minnesota. No indeed, it’s all good in Wrigleyville, to the victor go the spoils and bring on Bill Murray and CubbyTV!

The longstanding debate over where pro sports teams and their RSNs belong in the MVPD packaging scheme will not be settled anytime soon. Looking back at the carriage history of pro sports, the original concept of offering professional team games via RSNs was created by Mr. Charles Dolan and his Cablevision Sports 3 in 1976, followed shortly thereafter by MSG Network in 1977. Originally, Mr. Dolan offered these as “mini pay services” at a price above that of the entry-level packages. The concept of moving RSNs to the larger and more heavily penetrated basic tiers first surfaced south of the nation’s capital in the outer markets that carried Home Team Sports. Recounting those days with veteran distribution exec Jim Bates, he explained the move to expanded basic as more a function of convenience for the cable operators in and around Norfolk, Va., who didn’t have the marketing muscle to drive them as pay services, and saw the reasonable license fee as an appropriate tradeoff.  

As the 90s rolled around, the idea that there was larger ad sales success to pursue for the RSNs gave way to negotiations for pay to basic re-positioning, and the game was on. Couple that with the strategic consolidation of the RSNs by SportsChannel and then Fox Sports Net, add in Fox’s David Hill’s proclamation that “sports are tribal,” then finish it off with the sales pitch that RSNs were higher rated than ESPN and, well, ESPN is in expanded basic. Game set and match! Wait a minute, that’s a tennis term. How about “a walk off homer” for the RSNs? Much better.  

But enough about the badness of protracted and painful baseball/RSN distribution strikeouts as this will inevitably play out and probably cure itself with the shift in purchasing trends currently disrupting Pay TV. Let’s end on a high note for our nation’s pastime. There is a youth movement in baseball with 15 players under the age of 25 playing in the world series, Bob Bowman and his MLB Advanced Media team have created the best of the U.S. pro leagues’ digital platforms, and commissioner Rob Manfred is a forward thinking leader who is looking to shorten games through various rules innovations.  

People watch winners, and having 5 million Cubs show up for a victory parade may be a strong pitch for placing yet another RSN on expanded basic. If only the Cubs could win it every year!

(Chicago Cubs' victory parade photo by Ryan Dickey on Flickr.com)

Matt Cacciato is an Adjunct Professor in Ohio University’s No. 1-ranked Sports Management Program and founder of American Education Television. Prior to that, he spent 20 years negotiating affiliate distribution agreements for YES Network, Fox Sports Net’s L.A., Arizona and Washington state RSNs, ESPN (including the company’s only RSN effort, ESPN West) and SportsChannel NY. 

U.S. Rep. Janice Hahn (D-San Pedro) received a taker in her quest to get California pay TV distributors to sit down and hash out a carriage deal for Time Warner Cable’s SportsNet LA regional sports network, with Frontier Communications, recent buyer of Verizon systems in the state, agreeing to meet with the cable operator May 5.

Frontier is the only distributor to accept Hahn’s invitation – last week her request to have DirecTV and TWC for a sit-down was declined by the satellite TV company’s parent AT&T.

There is no guarantee that any deal would be reached after the Frontier meeting, but it does show that at least one distributor is willing to open a channel of communications.

The Dodgers network has been available only on Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications (which is in the process of buying TWC) and a handful of smaller operators in the Los Angeles market since its launch in 2014. Distributors have balked at the high cost of the channel – about $4.90 per subscriber per month, according to SNL Kagan estimates – and have rejected several attempts by the cable operator to entice them to sign a deal.

Just prior to the major league baseball season opening last month, TWC had offered a one-year 30% discount for the channel, which distributors said was inadequate. Later, TWC offered a six-year pact that started with the 30% discount but included gradual price increases over the remainder of the deal. That too was rebuffed.

Some distributors have criticized TWC for playing up the fact that this year is the last that legendary broadcaster and voice of the Dodgers Vin Scully will provide play-by-play for games.

“Dodger fans are sick of this blackout and they want to know that all sides are actively working toward a solution,” Congresswoman Hahn said in a statement.  “I hope that other cable companies will follow their example and agree to meet. I am hopeful that this will be a productive meeting and that Dodger games will be back on fans’ TV sets soon.”

Frontier may have other motivations. According to reports, the transition in some former Verizon markets hasn’t gone as smoothly as planned. Frontier closed its purchase of former Fios systems in California, Texas and Florida in March for $10.5 billion. Frontier offers service in LA-area like Ventura and Santa Barbara.

The SportsNet LA dust-up is part of what appears to be a growing backlash from distributors regarding the high costs of sports channels. In the New York market, Comcast has been without the Yankees Entertainment & Sports (YES) Network since November for its 900,000 customers in parts of New Jersey and Connecticut.

UPDATE:No Game, No Talks Between YES, Comcast

Barring a last minute — and unlikely — reprieve, the Opening Day games of two of the most popular teams in Major League Baseball — the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers — will be dark to more than 1 million pay TV customers on April 4.

The ongoing big-market disputes are a sign that perhaps sports programming, once thought to be bulletproof, is weakening in the era of skinny bundles and over-the-top video.

Comcast in November refused to pay what it called a 33% increase in fees charged by YES Network, the New York-area RSN that features most Bronx Bombers games. Comcast’s customers missed out on Brooklyn Nets National Basketball Association games, but many thought the operator would cave in by the start of the baseball season. YES, owned by Fox Sports Network Group and the Yankees, was carried in about 900,000 Comcast homes in parts of New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

L.A. FADEAWAY

Time Warner Cable’s SportsNet LA, home to the Dodgers, continues to be spurned by distributors in Southern California including AT&T, DirecTV and Cox Communications. Time Warner Cable, which carries the RSN in L.A. along with Charter Communications and Bright House Networks, even agreed to offer a one-year discount — later extended to six years — and was still rejected.

Distributors have complained about the high cost of sports programming for years, but as sports rights charges have climbed and fees for networks have hit the stratosphere, pay TV providers are pushing back.

Some analysts say sports programming, once thought to be must-have content because of its live viewing nature and predominantly young male audience, is vulnerable as operators attempt to create “skinny” bundles for price-conscious customers.

“Clearly, there’s an appetite for a lower-cost package with less sports programming,” Telsey Advisory Group media analyst Tom Eagan said.

Comcast executive vice president of consumer services Marcien Jenckes said he sees the YES dispute in simper terms: the operator’s perception of the value of the network doesn’t match the price. Comcast has claimed that its customers in the New York market aren’t big YES watchers and haven’t much missed the channel since it came off on Nov. 18.

At $5.93 per month per subscriber, according to SNL Kagan, YES is the priciest RSN in the country — and at about $2.50 per subscriber per month higher than another New York area RSN, MSG Network, according to Kagan.

“At a more reasonable price, they would be a great value proposition,” Jenckes said.

YES CEO Tracy Dolgin has taken Comcast’s argument to task. He said YES programming is rated No. 1 in Comcast’s New York area territories on game days. And he said YES also out-rated SNY, partly owned by Comcast, by a margin of 5 to 1 in its Connecticut footprint on game days.

About 40% of Comcast’s 900,000 subscribers in the New York area consider themselves Yankees fans, Dolgin said.

YES: RATE WAS NO SURPRISE

While Comcast has said it is looking for a lower price, Dolgin noted the operator had been paying the higher rate for more than eight months — its deal originally expired in February. Dolgin said it is misleading to say a price that it has been paying for nearly a year is suddenly too high.

Dolgin said that other RSNs vary in price depending on the market; operators on the fringes of a team’s territory usually pay less than those in the heart of the market. YES does not have so-called zoned pricing like others do, including Comcast-owned RSNs.

“What we charge for YES is less than what Comcast charges for some of their owned-and-operated regional sports networks in the intermarket where the Comcast subs are,” Dolgin said, calling the Kagan estimate “way over” what Comcast was paying.

YES will keep running ads urging Comcast customers to switch providers, Dolgin said.

“It’s not easy, but Yankee fans are very passionate. In the month of April there are 23 Yankee games and 20 are exclusively on the YES Network. If you’re a Yankee fan, you either feel like a victim, or you switch.”

The high cost of sports has been an issue with cable, satellite and telco TV operators for years now, and as Major League Baseball’s regular season approaches — opening day was scheduled for Sunday, April 5, with the St. Louis Cardinals traveling to Wrigley Field to meet the Chicago Cubs — one major regional sports network continues to be out in the lurch: Time Warner Cable-distributed SportsNet LA, home of the Los Angeles Dodgers. While negotiations between the network and distributors in the market are nonexistent as of press time — the Dodgers home opener is scheduled for April 6 — Multichannel News senior finance editor Mike Farrell spoke with Cox Communications’s point man for programming negotiations, senior vice president of content acquisition Andy Albert, about sports costs and how cable operators can use programming deals to differentiate themselves from the over-the-top threat. An edited transcript follows.

MCN:Major League Baseball’s regular season is fast approaching. Where do you stand on your sports deals right now?

Andy Albert: A lot of those deals are long-term deals that are locked up. The one that is not locked up is the Dodgers. Not much has changed in Dodgers Land. The Dodgers asked for too much, Time Warner paid too much and we’re finding it really difficult to burden ourselves with the cost of the Dodgers. Right now, what they have talked about for the last year is a very inflexible deal that does burden non-sports fans with the very high cost of the Dodgers. I don’t see anything changing there.

MCN:Cox has owned RSNs in the past and has had to come up with a way to price and market them, so you know it’s not easy. Time Warner Cable is taking it on the chin, but at least with this network, they don’t own it, they’re just managing it for the Dodgers. Is the team the party that is being unrealistic here?

AA: There is no doubt that sports costs are high and getting higher on a regular basis. I think the Dodgers just set a new standard of unreasonableness. They [TWC] may not own it but they certainly crafted the economic relationship between themselves and the Dodgers.

MCN:Is there any hope that if the Time Warner Cable-Comcast deal gets done, there will be a new wave of reasonableness?

AA: [Laughs.] I have no idea. I would love to see something break there that would be good for our customers. We definitely know that there are Dodgers fans. We want to do everything we can to serve all of our customers as best as we can. Some are Dodgers fans; many of them are not Dodgers fans.

MCN:Do you think TWC and the Dodgers overestimated the market? When TWC launched the Lakers network [SportsNet LA], the Lakers were and are insanely popular in that market. But baseball has always seemed to be secondary to basketball in L.A.

AA: The Lakers are probably two or three times more popular than the Dodgers in L.A. And baseball is a long season — 162 games; basketball is 82, and football is only 16. There are a lot of baseball games on television. There are a good number of games on ESPN and some on Fox when they play other teams on the West Coast. Not enough for a real hard-core fan, but there are certainly a smattering of Dodgers games available.

MCN:Are distributors drawing a line in the sand against rising sports costs?

AA: I don’t know if there is a line being drawn in the sand. But it just shows you that there is a problem with sports. [Satellite-TV provider] Dish [Network], as far as I know, doesn’t carry any New York sports at all. More people have been choosing among sports networks that are affordable for customers. The Astros network is another one; it sat out there for a long time without any distribution before DirecTV bought it.

MCN:Let’s step away from the Dodgers for a moment and talk about programming in general. When you go into negotiations, is pricing still the main consideration?

AA: We want to pay the right price. We have expectations now that all of our deals will include the right to stream networks in and out of the home. If you look in the home, we are at about 100 networks that you can stream. And we have rights with a lot of networks where you can go to their websites and apps and, if you’re a customer, you already have out-of-home access.

MCN:When TV Everywhere first came into vogue, programmers were OK with in-home viewing on multiple devices, but they resisted out-of-home viewing. Now it seems like anything goes. What changed their minds?

AA: A lot of their reluctance for a long time was about ratings. But the ratings are starting to come around now. Look at some of the over-the-top announcements — networks are trying to figure out where the [audience] is shifting towards, and they’re trying to be there if they can. We have all of these rights today for our customers. We have the right to watch a lot of that stuff outside the home on an authenticated basis. And we do that within the home as a managed service, so there is a quality of service you don’t get necessarily with a Sony or a Sling or any of those guys.

MCN:The OTT services are starting to emerge — Sling TV is out, Sony is in three cities with its Play- Station Vue, and HBO Now is launching this month. Does this put added pressure on you to do more sports deals because that’s one of the few things left that viewers watch live?

AA: I agree with your statement, but we have a lot of sports. Our sports fans are pretty well-covered today.