As the Dodgers “continue talks with Fox Sports and Time Warner Cable over a television contract that could be worth at least $6 billion, the team also has opened discussions” with MLB “over the revenue-sharing implications of any such deal,” according to Bill Shaikin of the L.A. TIMES. Sources said that Dodgers Chair Mark Walter has been “personally involved in the discussions.” The Dodgers with the talks “hope to avoid a U.S. Bankruptcy Court showdown with MLB." Sources said that as part of the settlement under which former Owner Frank McCourt agreed to sell the Dodgers, the “court -- and not MLB -- has the final say over distribution of the team's television revenue.” The discussions with MLB “center on whether all of the Dodgers' guaranteed television revenue should be subject to baseball's revenue-sharing program.” The Dodgers “must contribute 34%” of their annual rights fee to MLB's revenue-sharing program. The team “plans to launch its own” RSN, in part to “avoid the prospect of Fox or TWC paying a much higher rights fee” (L.A. TIMES, 12/18).
