The Dodgers' opening-day telecast last Monday on Time Warner Cable SportsNet LA "generated a .79 household rating and an estimated 58,146 viewers," which is slightly more than those who "turned out at Dodger Stadium for the sold-out game" against the Padres, according to Meg James of the L.A. TIMES. For comparison, the Angels in their season opener on the road against the Mariners "generated a 1.35 household TV rating in Southern California and 88,415 viewers" on Fox Sports West. The Dodgers' TV audience "took a tumble on Wednesday," when "just 35,000 viewers" tuned in. Despite the small TV audiences that come in part because of the ongoing carriage standoff over the RSN, most of the Dodgers' ad sponsors "have hung with the team this year." Horizon Media VP & Managing Dir/Local Broadcast & Promotions Tiffany Kirk, whose company handles ad placements for Southern California Honda Auto Dealers and Jack in the Box, said, "We definitely do see value in still being associated with the Dodgers. We are not walking away from the partnership. There is a relationship between advertisers and the home team that is hard to duplicate." Still, Santa Monica-based ad agency Phelps Chief Integrated Media Officer Mary Jo Sobotka said, "The ratings have been really low. A lot of advertisers are thinking about radio as an option" (L.A. TIMES, 4/11).
TIME'S TICKING: YAHOO SPORTS' Jeff Passan wrote under the header, "10 Degrees: The Ugliness Of The Dodgers' TV Mess." Everyone involved "seems more than content to let the impasse fester on." Every last bit of it "reeks of greed" from TWC, the Dodgers and MLB, "who have skipped past the stage of caring about the team’s fans and sequestered themselves inside a bubble where this is still a fight worth fighting." Rather than "take a stand against such systematic blacking out, MLB prefers to protect the sanctity of its lucrative local-TV deals, an understandable position if the league’s prime motivation at this point weren’t growing the game" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 4/12). Meanwhile, in L.A., Tom Hoffarth wrote a la carte programming "needs to happen sooner than later." Hoffarth: "I can’t blame TWC any longer for outbidding Prime Ticket, and others, for the TV rights to the Dodgers. If they weren’t going to pay this exorbitant amount, then try to pass it onto the viewers, someone else was. We’re just finished with all this foolishness. By dumb luck, we have the means and ability and live in an area where we do have a choice, yet we feel the anguish for those who don’t at this moment. This is a selfish resolution, based on a quality-of-life issue, plain and not-so-simple" (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 4/12).
