Time Warner Cable "is expected to shoulder the burden of its bad deal to acquire TV rights" to Dodgers games "by writing down the value" of SportsNet LA by up to $1B, according to sources cited by Atkinson & Kosman of the N.Y. POST. TWC paid rights owners, led by Dodgers Owners Guggenheim Partners, $8.35B over 25 years, but "has not been able to get rival pay-TV operators to carry the network at around $5 per subscriber per month." That has left some 70% of southern California households "without games." Sources said that the market rate for the channel "is more likely $3 per subscriber per month, meaning the charge will be almost" $1B when "adjusted over the life of the contract" or in the region of $700M in present-day terms. A source suggested the "mess had to be cleaned up as a condition of Comcast’s proposed deal to acquire" TWC. The source said, “Comcast will be made whole" (N.Y. POST, 3/24). Meanwhile, Kosman & Atkinson cited sources as saying that TWC "is no closer to getting other pay-TV providers to carry its pricey" RSN, as neither side "has blinked in the standoff over fees." A source said, "There are no new meaningful offers on the table. TWC hasn’t moved on price” (N.Y. POST, 3/21).
WHAT'S IN A NAME? In L.A., Tom Hoffarth noted the Dodgers’ investment and rebranding of part of KLAC-AM to where "starting this last week they want it now called AM 570 LA Sports (and no more references to Fox Sports Radio) also seemed to leave out an essential question: If the team has become a business partner, why wouldn’t they demand daily live coverage of every spring training exhibition game from Arizona as an essential part of that deal?" The Angels "carry every one of their exhibition games on their own" KLAA-AM, "interrupting whatever ESPN Radio syndicated coverage occurs." Hoffarth: "As the Dodgers’ TV carriage deal with SportsNet L.A. continues to stall, why not at least serve one loyal audience in March?" iHeartMedia Senior VP/Sports L.A. Don Martin "points out that 570 will be carrying 18 Dodgers exhibition games this year -- the most it has ever done." But that is "mostly relegated to weekends" (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 3/22).
