The Yankees and Dodgers could "start the regular season with significant holes in their TV distribution," according to Fisher & Ourand of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Fewer than 500 households "have switched away from Comcast as a result of the distributor's carriage fight" with YES. Sources said that the figure is "not nearly large enough to break the impasse in negotiations." Sources added that DirecTV was "likely to turn down a discounted one-year deal" made last week by Time Warner to carry SportsNet LA. Sources said that the chances of a deal by Opening Day are "remote." Fisher & Ourand note the battle illuminates a change in carriage disputes where distributors "have become more emboldened to keep local sports channels off their services." RSNs are "among the most expensive channels on distributors' channel lineups" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/28 issue). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Flint & Futterman note this fight "is the latest and most high-profile example of how pay-TV providers are digging in their heels over rising sports-TV costs." The standoffs are "testing the limits of the sports-rights boom of recent decades and are threatening a money stream" that has powered industry profits and financed huge salaries for players. Some big pay-TV distributors are "beginning to push back aggressively in fee negotiations, concerned viewers are getting fed up with sports costs." Carmel Group Chief Service Officer & Chair Jimmy Schaeffler said, "I believe that finally sports TV is in crisis mode." Former Fox exec David Sternberg said that distributors "have learned that they can live without" RSNs in many cases. Sternberg: "The balance of power has definitely shifted to the distributors" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/28).
POLITICAL WARFARE: In L.A., J.P. Hoornstra noted Vin Scully's impending retirement has "been used as a political tool" by Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred to "pressure providers into accepting a reduced rate to carry" SportsNet LA this season. However, if anyone had "asked Scully if he wanted to be a political tool, he would have declined." Scully: "The thing that bothers me is making it sound like because it's my last year, I'm almost more important than the game. That scares me to death. That's the last thought. I just want to do the game. I just want to have fun" (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 3/26).
