LA Dodger Games only on Time-Warner Cable? Only on SportsNet LA for Now.
If you live in the second largest market in the US and want to watch your local baseball professional baseball team the LA Dodger’s you are going to have a hard time watching them if you don’t have Time-Warner cable.
Time-Warner cable services about 30% of the Los Angeles area. But what happens to the other 70%, those with Charter, Cox, Dish, DirecTV, Verizon FiOS or AT&T U-Verse? You are out of luck unless you can watch Sports Net LA.
Fox Sports West had aired Dodger games since 1997.
The deal with the Dodgers and Time Warner is worth over $8 billion and runs for 25 years. SportsNet LA is owned by Time Warner and Guggenheim Baseball Management which own the LA Dodgers.
Cable/TV companies are receiving many complaints from customers, but what can they do? Most have no options, unless you watch on dodgers.com and pay for an MLB subscription. Reports are that there are discussions, but most involve subscribers paying $5 more per month wether they watch the Dodger games or not and this rate increasing over time.
Many have accused the Dodger of not caring about fans, that they are just chasing the money at the expense of fans. It could come back to bite them hard with fans not being happy. Very similar to what the Laker’s did through with Time Warner. Are we seeing a trend in cable companies and sports teams locking up long term broadcast rights?
