Dodgers, Time Warner Cable announce new channel: SportsNet LA

[Gallen5862]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodger...,1454054.story

Dodgers, Time Warner Cable announce new channel: SportsNet LA

The name for the Dodgers' new television channel: SportsNet LA.

The Dodgers and Time Warner Cable officially announced their television contract on Monday, with the team-owned channel starting in 2014. The deal, pending the approval of Major League Baseball, covers 25 years and is believed to be worth between $7 billion and $8 billion to the team.

The Dodgers are to remain on Fox Sports through the 2013 season, but the team decided it wanted its own channel thereafter and negotiated with Fox and Time Warner Cable.

"We concluded last year that the best way to give our fans what they want -- more content and more Dodger baseball -- was to launch our own network," Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter said in a statement.

[Sea Ray]

Originally Posted by Gallen5862

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodger...,1454054.story

Dodgers, Time Warner Cable announce new channel: SportsNet LA

The name for the Dodgers' new television channel: SportsNet LA.

The Dodgers and Time Warner Cable officially announced their television contract on Monday, with the team-owned channel starting in 2014. The deal, pending the approval of Major League Baseball, covers 25 years and is believed to be worth between $7 billion and $8 billion to the team.

The Dodgers are to remain on Fox Sports through the 2013 season, but the team decided it wanted its own channel thereafter and negotiated with Fox and Time Warner Cable.

"We concluded last year that the best way to give our fans what they want -- more content and more Dodger baseball -- was to launch our own network," Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter said in a statement.

Is this a channel we can get nationwide like the Big Ten Network or will we have to spring for Extra Innings in order to get it? I'm guessing it's the latter

[Reds Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Sea Ray

Is this a channel we can get nationwide like the Big Ten Network or will we have to spring for Extra Innings in order to get it? I'm guessing it's the latter

For those providers that come to a deal to carry the channel it will be a locally available channel in the LA area and available on Extra Innings/MLB.TV. It won't be a national channel.

It is very similar to the Time Warner Channel that launched this year for the Lakers.

That is the real problem with all these teams launching their own networks there is just so much cost and bandwidth available to keep paying for and adding new networks for every team that launches their own channel.

Most providers will end up agreeing to carry the Dodgers channel as it such a big market but all these channels launching are not necessarily good news for smaller market teams like the Reds trying to come up with their own deals. Eventually some teams are going to get left out of being carried by some of the major satellite or cable companies because there is only so much cost a company will take on and bandwidth available and it is getting to be too much with all these teams launching individual networks.

[remdog]

Yep, Sea Ray, I'm thinking that this will go through Extra Innings for viewers outside of the L. A. Market. http://www.ocregister.com/sports/net...rs-launch.html The Big Markets just got a bunch bigger and the small markets just got a bunch smaller.

Rem

[Yachtzee]

Originally Posted by Reds Fanatic

For those providers that come to a deal to carry the channel it will be a locally available channel in the LA area and available on Extra Innings/MLB.TV. It won't be a national channel.

It is very similar to the Time Warner Channel that launched this year for the Lakers.

That is the real problem with all these teams launching their own networks there is just so much cost and bandwidth available to keep paying for and adding new networks for every team that launches their own channel.

Most providers will end up agreeing to carry the Dodgers channel as it such a big market but all these channels launching are not necessarily good news for smaller market teams like the Reds trying to come up with their own deals. Eventually some teams are going to get left out of being carried by some of the major satellite or cable companies because there is only so much cost a company will take on and bandwidth available and it is getting to be too much with all these teams launching individual networks.

Most of the team-owned networks end up being regional networks only, basically competing with the other regional networks. And then you have the situation with Sports Time Ohio, which was started by the Indians' owner Larry Dolan when they decided not to renew with Fox Sports Ohio. Last year, Dolan sold Sports Time Ohio to News Corp., owner of Fox Sports Ohio.

[AtomicDumpling]

With all these skyrocketing TV deals becoming commonplace, hopefully it will lead to increased revenue sharing and the end of publicly-financed new stadiums.

[Vottomatic]

When does the TV contract end for the Reds?

I'm really interested in how much money their next deal will bring to the team.

The Reds should start a CincinnatiSports channel with TWC. They could dominate it, but have local high school sports on it, UC Bearcats, Xavier, Miami, etc. Meh........now that I think of it, probably not as much money in it.

[UKFlounder]

There may be questions over how they need to split the money with MLB's revenue sharing due to how this is set up.

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/s...k-sportsnet-la

[bucksfan2]

I don't quite get this deal for the Dodgers. Don't get me wrong 7-8 Billion is staggering, but why go out 25 years. In today's market every 5 years TV contracts look obsolete and and teams could make more money. Look at how much TV contracts have changed from 1988 until now. It almost reeks of the Dodgers need a short term infusion of cash and they are willing to pay the piper at the end of the deal.

[RedFanAlways1966]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

I don't quite get this deal for the Dodgers. Don't get me wrong 7-8 Billion is staggering, but why go out 25 years. In today's market every 5 years TV contracts look obsolete and and teams could make more money. Look at how much TV contracts have changed from 1988 until now. It almost reeks of the Dodgers need a short term infusion of cash and they are willing to pay the piper at the end of the deal.

Ask the Atlanta Braves!

[redsmetz]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

I don't quite get this deal for the Dodgers. Don't get me wrong 7-8 Billion is staggering, but why go out 25 years. In today's market every 5 years TV contracts look obsolete and and teams could make more money. Look at how much TV contracts have changed from 1988 until now. It almost reeks of the Dodgers need a short term infusion of cash and they are willing to pay the piper at the end of the deal.

In reading about this for a future Reds agreement, I've seen some folks talking saying that the cable bonanza is nearing its end. I don't know if that is correct or not, but I could see locking in the revenue now. That's $280M a year on average (that's right, isn't it, all the zeroes on the calculator are blurring ).