The dearth of carriage for the Dodgers' new RSN -- Time Warner Cable Sportsnet LA -- is “slowly killing the attention paid to the Dodgers, which is slowly killing interest in them,” according to Bill Plaschke of the L.A. TIMES. The Dodgers have “completely disappeared” in the L.A. market since launching the team-focused RSN. Plaschke: “Like 70% of Angelenos, I cannot watch the Dodgers games on TV.” The Dodgers are the “biggest bad guys” because, by taking $8.35B from TWC and insisting on starting their own channel, they made it “nearly impossible for that channel to find distribution at a price" that TWC could accept. The “next villain" is TWC, which "seriously overpaid, perhaps because it seriously misjudged the Los Angeles fan culture and thought this transition would be similar to the quick implementation of the Lakers channel a couple of years ago.” The “final villains are the pay-TV operators who have shunned the Dodgers.” Dodgers co-Owner Peter Guber said, “We sold the rights to a gigantic corporation, it's their job to market the rights and get the distribution. We are not happy that they haven't been able to get the full distribution in our own market that they promised. That's their job. They made the bet” (L.A. TIMES, 5/18).
