Dodgers co-Owner Magic Johnson "is predictably optimistic about the future of the team’s TV deal" after spending the entire regular season with "local television coverage unavailable" to around 70% of the market, according to Bill Plunkett of the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER. Johnson prior to yesterday's regular-season finale said, "I think we’re going to be on TV next season. I really do. ... They saw the response of the fans when they were on TV. Everybody wanted to watch the Dodgers." Plunkett notes Time Warner Cable, which owns the team's season-old RSN, reached an agreement with KDOC-Ind. "to air the SportsNet LA broadcasts of the final six regular-season games this past week." Johnson said that he "tried to use the force of his personality and standing" to move SportsNet LA carriage negotiations forward, but his overture to DirecTV "did nothing to change the impasse" (OCREGISTER.com, 9/28).
BIG BLUE: In L.A., Ryan Faughnder wrote "nobody is winning in the ongoing issues that have prevented most residents from watching" the Dodgers on TV except KDOC. Viewers last week were "flocking to the station" as it carried the final Dodgers games of the regular season. The net's late-season agreement with TWC was unusual because TWC was "compensating KDOC for the programming block." The cable provider was "simultaneously running the games on SportsNet LA," while also "handling advertising sales for the telecast because it already has relationships with advertisers who want to appear during sports events." Last Wednesday's division-clinching win against the Giants "averaged a whopping" 459,000 viewers on KDOC, while the previous day's game averaged 297,000 viewers. Both of those results "are sharply higher than the average of 18,000 viewers KDOC had for its weeknight prime-time lineup this month before the games began airing." KDOC GM John Manzi said, "Without question, these Dodgers games have been a substantial boost to our audience." Manzi "hopes the Dodgers telecasts will increase exposure" for the net's other programming. He also "wants to use baseball to bring people to KDOC's recently added news programming" (LATIMES.com, 9/26).
