DirecTV Signs Long-Term Carriage Deal For Time Warner's RSNs

DirecTV subscribers in L.A. will be able to watch the Lakers on Time Warner Cable SportsNet tomorrow tonight – and for the rest of the season – after the satellite operator signed a long-term carriage deal for TWCSN and the Spanish-language TWC Deportes. Sources say DirecTV will try to have the channel up and running for tomorrow's game against the Suns. The deal leaves Dish Network as the biggest remaining holdout not carrying either of the channels, which have carriage on L.A.'s biggest distributors TWC, Cox, Charter, AT&T, Verizon and Bright House.

Sources said DirecTV originally had resisted doing any deal that would include the Spanish-language TWC Deportes. Just last week, DirecTV President Mike White bashed the cost of the TWC networks, which cost L.A. distributors $3.95 per subscriber per month.