When the Dodgers play their first Spring Training game today, they will be "invisible to most TV fans back home," as the Time Warner Cable SportsNet LA impasse is "blacking out games" to more than 60% of L.A.-area viewers for the second straight year, according to Lucas Shaw of BLOOMBERG NEWS. Neither TWC nor cable/satellite operators have "been willing to budge." Before the '14 playoffs, TWC "made a deal with a local broadcast station to air the Dodgers’ final six regular-season games," but that "was a short-term fix." TWC and the team in the long term "risk losing fans, along with the subscriber fees and ad dollars they generate." But the dispute "may help the Dodgers in one area: ticket sales" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 3/3).
STILL ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK: In Atlanta, Rodney Ho noted Dish Network is "expected to black out" about 50 weekend Braves games this year on FS South and SportSouth in a "dispute that began two years ago." Fox Sports in '13 bought out the rights for games that were "originally going to air on Peachtree TV and asked for some extra money from the cable and satellite carriers." All parties "said fine -- except Dish," which has said that Fox is "asking for too much for rights." The dispute "has no impact on subscribers of AT&T U-Verse, Charter, DirecTV and Xfinity" (AJC.com, 3/2).
