In yet another drastic change affecting the business of distributing regional sports networks, the nation's second-largest pay TV operator, Charter Communications, will now offer a new lower-priced iteration of its most popular Spectrum-branded programming tier that will not include local sports and league channels. 

Separately but related, Charter announced an extension of its carriage agreement with No. 3 operator DirecTV for its own regional sports networks (RSNs). In the Southern California region, DirecTV will now have more flexibility in how it distributes Spectrum SportsNet (exclusive local TV home of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers) and Spectrum SportsNet LA (home of Major League Baseball’s Dodgers). 

Additionally, Charter will launch direct-to-consumer iterations of SportsNet and SportsNet LA, charging nonaffiliate subscribers an undisclosed fee to access the channels sans pay TV package. 

The moves comes as the spiraling cost of local sports channels continues to drive consumers who aren’t big sports fans to cut the cord and exit the pay TV ecosystem. 

Traditionally, RSN distributors have used their leverage in local markets to require pay TV operators to make their channels available to the highest number of subscribers possible. These high “minimum penetration” threshold requirements typically exceed 90% of an operator’s subscriber base. This has forced operators to include local sports channels in their most attractive programming packages, driving up the price. 

New terms reduce the minimum penetration threshold to around the 60%-plus range, according to one pay TV insider. This flexibility better enables pay TV operators to create tiers that better match the tastes and budgets of their target market, reducing the pressure to force channels on consumers that don’t want them. 

“While viewing habits continue to shift, it’s clear that regular season professional sports programming remains extremely popular with a core base of traditional cable, satellite and OTT customers,” Dan Finnerty, senior VP and GM of Spectrum Networks, said in a statement. “That said, given these customers represent a relatively small percentage of the overall video subscriber base, and recognizing the marked increase in direct-to-consumer choices, the model for RSNs needs to evolve to reflect the realities of the current marketplace. With this agreement, we are taking a step to shift the business model so that customers have more control.”

Charter will now split its most popular programming package, Spectrum Select, into two tiers within a portion of its footprint. Spectrum Select Plus will include RSNs and league networks, such as NBA TV and MLB Network. Spectrum Sports Signature will be priced at around $10 a month less and not include these sports channels. 

According to Sports Business Journal's John Ourand, Charter has secured the more favorable minimum distribution terms needed to execute this plan as it recently renewed carriage for most of the RSNs it licenses covering around 85% of Spectrum's footprint. 

Meanwhile, high minimum distribution requirements for Charter's own RSNs have been an issue with DirecTV for over a decade. 

SportsNet was launched by the erstwhile Time Warner Cable in 2012 based on a 20-year, $4 billion deal with the Lakers. Two years later, TWC also launched SportsNet LA on the foundation of a 25-year, $8.35 billion deal with the Dodgers. 

From the beginning, TWC was at odds with DirecTV over carriage of the two channels, a dialectic that didn't improve at all in 2015, when Charter acquired TWC and AT&T purchased DirecTV. 

In fact, DirecTV didn't license the SportsNet RSNs until 2020, and not before the carriage dispute wound up in the halls of the U.S. Justice Department. 

Now, with the subscriber bases of both telecommunications companies whittled to a fraction of what once were, they're finally devising more flexible distribution strategies. 

“DirecTV continues to believe in the power of local sports, while also recognizing the demands of the many homes we serve with other diverse programming interests,” DirecTV chief content officer Rob Thun said. “This agreement with Spectrum Networks achieves three key objectives — putting consumers first, recognizing local value and enabling both parties to extend their relationship with long-term, mutual benefits.”

Michael Bair knows his way around a sports network. The longtime media executive worked at ad firm Ogilvy & Mather, Showtime, HBO, Cablevision Systems and Rainbow Media before a nine-year stint as president of Madison Square Garden Media Group and two years as CEO of streaming startup Bleachers Corp. He joined Charter Communications in 2016, after the merger with Time Warner Cable, to run Spectrum Networks. Now in charge of 30 sports and news channels, including the iconic NY1, Spectrum SportsNet and SportsNet LA in Los Angeles and local sports channels in Kansas City and Hawaii (as well as a 27% stake in SNY, the TV home of the New York Mets), Bair is guiding the channels through one of the industry’s most disruptive periods ever. He discussed the changing landscape with Multichannel News/B+C senior content producer, finance, Mike Farrell. An edited transcript follows.

With vaccines more widespread and MLB planning a 162-game schedule this season, are you optimistic sports may finally be on its way back? Sports took a pause but never fully went away. While I am optimistic that as the vaccine continues to roll out across the country, more and more stadiums and arenas will be able to safely welcome fans back, I am equally confident that fans will continue to tune in to SportsNet and SportsNet LA. Last season, Dodgers telecasts on SportsNet LA recorded the network’s highest-
ever household rating (2.63) and A25-54 rating (1.43), while Lakers live game broadcasts on SportsNet recorded the highest household rating (2.99) and A25-54 rating (2.03) since the 2012-13 season.   

You have four regional sports networks. Do you see that programming differently than some of your peers, as more of a retention tool? With all of our networks, sports and news, we focus on engagement. On the news side, who we are and what we do is entirely community-based. Our goal is to add value to the customers’ services and to be essential to their everyday lives. For sports, our goal is also to provide value — in this instance, by eliminating the middleman, which often increases the cost of sports programming. 

SportsNet LA, home of the current World Series champion Dodgers, signed a carriage deal with DirecTV owner AT&T last year. Are you close to other deals? We announced our carriage agreement with AT&T last April, and now SportsNet LA is available to 100% of homes in Las Vegas and Hawaii. We do not have anything to report on negotiations with other distributors, but it should be noted that Spectrum and AT&T are available to the vast majority of potential viewers in the Dodgers in-market area. 

You have news channels in markets as diverse as New York, Los Angeles and Bowling Green, Kentucky. How important is local news to the overall strategy? Local journalism is as essential to communities as are schools, parks and libraries. Over the past year, the pandemic has accentuated the critical need for reliable local news that informs and empowers communities. Yet, local news organizations are shutting down, cutting costs and reducing coverage. We’re largely going in the other direction, even launching new networks in Dallas, Texas, and Asheville, North Carolina, in the middle of the pandemic. 

What are your plans for those news channels? Over the past few years, we have launched networks in California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin. In 2020, we expanded our networks in North Carolina and Texas, and we launched the Spectrum News App to better enable Spectrum customers to access our news and content to our video and our internet-only customers. Our plan is to constantly increase and improve on our local coverage.  Going forward, as news consumption habits continue to evolve, our goal is to ensure that our customers can always access our news anytime and anywhere, whether they are watching, listening or reading.

Charter Communications and AT&T have finally reached an agreement on the latter’s carriage of regional sports network SportsNet LA, breaking an impasse that started in 2014.

Spectrum SportsNet LA is the exclusive RSN home of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The deal, terms of which weren’t described, has already brought SportsNet LA to not only DirecTV, the second most distributed pay TV service in Southern California, but also AT&T’s new IP-based pay TV platform, AT&T TV. Legacy IPTV service U-verse will also get the channel, as will AT&T’s marginalized virtual pay TV service, AT&T TV Now, starting April 8.

SportsNet LA was launched at the beginning of the 2014 Major League Baseball season, the result of a 25-year, $8.35 billion deal carved out by the erstwhile Time Warner Cable and the Dodgers organization. Right off the bat, TWC and DirecTV came to loggerheads over carriage of the new channel. Charter’s subsequent purchase of TWC, and AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV, didn’t change the dynamic … until now. 

With news circulating among Dodgers fans in the L.A. region, many wondered if it was an April Fool’s gag—timed conspicuously to an MLB season with a start  indefinitely delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This Charter press release seems to confirm the authenticity of the news, however. 

“This agreement underscores our commitment to provide all Dodgers fans the opportunity to enjoy our award-winning programming and live game coverage,” said Dan Finnerty, senior VP of Spectrum Networks, in the statement. “Working together with AT&T, we were able to reach an agreement to offer the region’s most popular teams to local fans across AT&T’s video platforms.”

Indeed, for the bulk of a seven-year string of consecutive National League West championships, not to mention two World Series *appearances, the Dodgers have remained unaccessible on television to a large portion of the local fanbase. (Astros fans: You know what the asterisk is for.)

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti added: “Our city has the best sports fans in the world, and they want to enjoy all of the excitement and tradition that Dodger games bring to Los Angeles. I’m very pleased that Spectrum Sports and AT&T have reached this agreement, which will bring Dodger games into the homes of AT&T TV, DirecTV, U-verse TV and AT&T TV Now customers when the season begins and give more Angelenos the chance to cheer for our favorite team all the way to the World Series." 

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.”

Charter Communications, which has deals in place to buy Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, plans to add TWC's SportsNet LA, the network that carries Los Angeles Dodgers games but has not been seen on major pay-TV distributors in Southern California other than TWC and Bright House, the Los Angeles Timesreported.

The newspaper said Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said in an interview Tuesday "we are going to get the Dodgers on" and "we want the Dodgers on every outlet and we are committed to making that happen."

Time Warner Cable confirmed Charter's intent, saying in a statement that "Charter is committed to carrying SportsNet LA as soon as possible. We're excited for Charter customers to enjoy the network's games and in-depth programming.” 

SportsNet LA is in the second season of showing Dodgers' games under a 25-year rights deal with the team's owners, Guggenheim Partners. Distributors such as DirecTV, Dish Network, AT&T U-verse, Cox Communications and Charter have balked at paying more than $4 per customer to offer the channel to their subscribers, frustrating fans in the region. Charter has about 300,000 subscribers in Southern California, the Times said.

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.

To paraphrase Yogi Berra, it seems to be getting late early out there for Los Angeles Dodgers fans who are not subscribers to Time Warner Cable.

With 12 days to go before the club’s 2015 opener against the San Diego Padres, the MSO, which is handling the distribution for and operating SportsNet LA, the regional sports network home to the Dodgers, said negotiations have stalled.

“We want all Dodger fans to have access to SportsNet LA. Despite our repeated attempts, other providers are unwilling to engage in any discussions,” said the MSO. “If Dodger fans want to enjoy SportsNet LA this season, we encourage them to switch to a provider that carries the network.”

In addition to Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, which benefits from the nation’s No. 2 MSO’s programming leverage and negotiations, and Champion Broadband are the only other distributors in SportNet LA’s TV territory to ink affiliate pacts.

Last season, DirecTV, Dish Network, Charter Communications, AT&T U-Verse and Cox Communications all balked at a monthly license fee that exceeded $4 per subscriber.  The same shuttout scenario evidently could unfold, particularly with the price to play this season increasing to a reported $4.90 per subscriber.

Time Warner Cable, meanwhile, is left footing a very expensive bill. The MSO is now in the second of a 25-year deal under which it is paying Guggenheim Partners, the Dodgers owners, some $8.35 billion over its term. Aiming for a long-term cost-certainty hedge against the rising cost of sports rights, Time Warner Cable assumed the full risk, assuming it would offset those outlays by collecting the license fees from other distribution players in the Dodgers TV territory.

The absence of contractual movement prompted the New York Post to pen a story on March 23, indicating that Time Warner Cable was preparing to take a $1 billion writedown on the value of the impaired asset.

The MSO yesterday afternoon brush-backed the story thusly:  “In response to a March 23rd New York Post article about SportsNet LA, Time Warner Cable has no plans to take a write down in connection with its Dodgers contract. In fact, TWC does not carry an asset on its balance sheet related to the Dodgers and, therefore, there is no asset for it to write down now or in the future. We continue to believe in the long term value of the network and remain eager to make it available to all Dodgers’ fans."

Price considerations aside, some market watchers believe the pending approvals or disapprovals of the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable and DirecTV-AT&T mergers are also serving to hold up negotiations for the Dodgers RSN.

With conversations currently struck out, it appears that 70% of television households in the L.A. region won’t be able to watch SportsNet LA’s coverage of opening day and again face the prospect of another entire season without the Dodgers -- one of the favorites to reach the World Series -- on local television.

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:

While FCC chairman Tom Wheeler is scheduled to meet with Rep. Tony Cárdenas  (D-Calif.) Tuesday afternoon, following the Congressman’s letter last week asking the agency to mediate the carriage impasse between SportsNet LA, the television home of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a host of distributors. However, the prime players in the dispute don’t seem like they are ready to play ball anytime soon.

In the letter to Wheeler, Cárdenas along with six other House Democrats, Brad Sherman, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Alan Lowenthal, Linda Sánchez Julia Brown, Janice Hanh and Judy Chu sent to the FCC, they asked the agency to mediate the dispute over $4-plus monthly subscriber fees that has kept the rookie RSN from gaining carriage on Cox, Charter, Suddenlink, Dish, DirecTV, Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse

Indeed, as the 2014 Major League Baseball season heads into its final two regular-season months, only subscribers to Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, which the nation’s No. 2 MSO negotiates programming deals for, have been able to see the first-place Dodgers on a regular basis within the team’s TV footprint.

In response to the letter, Time Warner Cable, which is paying the Dodgers some $8.35 billion over 25 years and is handling affiliate negotiations for the RSN, and the club said on July 28 that they would be amenable to entering into binding arbitration as a means to end the carriage impasse with DirecTV, which has a major presence in Los Angeles and throughout SportsNet LA’s footprint.

But the nation’s leading DBS provider issued the following statement this morning: “We agree with Congressman Sherman that any loyal Dodger fans deserve the opportunity to see games, yet not at the expense of the millions of other AT&T U-verse, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, DirecTV, Dish Network, Mediacom, Suddenlink Communications, Verizon FiOS and other families who have little or no interest in paying for Time Warner Cable¹s excess. Rather than force everyone to bail Time Warner Cable out, the simplest solution is to enable only those who want to pay to see the remaining Dodgers games to do so at the price Time Warner Cable wants to set.”

For its part, Time Warner Cable said it is open to a legal assist: "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.”

Cardenas, at the Minority Media & Telecommunications Conference, said he was sorry Wheeler had only been able to appear via video, but said he had to leave to talk to the FCC chairman on the phone.

Cardenas said after he wrote the letter, Wheeler called him and asked to talk. He suggested the carriage fight was a "subset" of larger media consolidation battles, and that this would not be the last of what he hoped would be "respectful, cordial and overdue conversations"

The letter and meeting come as AT&T is trying to gain Washington approval of its deal to buy DirecTV, while Comcast is seeking approval to merge with Time Warner Cable. 

(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.