Dodgers Team News

Dodgers News: Dodgers Facing Challenges With New Time Warner Channel

Magic Johnson and Stan KastenIt’s an exciting time to be a Los Angeles Dodgers fan as the Guggenheim Group is investing a lot of their resources into the team, experience at Dodger Stadium and also the experience of watching games on TV.

The Dodgers and Time Warner Cable agreed to a 25-year, $8 billion deal for the Dodgers rights, the most lucrative contract for a sports team. However, since the end of the season there haven’t been many details about how consumers will be able to watch the Dodgers in 2014. According to Josh Kosman and Claire Atkinson of the New York Post, there could be expensive subscriber fees:

For the Dodgers channel, Time Warner Cable is expected to ask for $5 a month per subscriber, a fee that would escalate to $8 over five years, said a source with direct knowledge of the company. Time Warner Cable wants to offer the Dodgers channel on expanded basic cable and not a separate sports tier, the source added.

At the end of the 2013 season the Dodgers saw their partnerships with Fox Sports and KCAL 9 end as their new channel, SportsNet LA, was supposed to stand alone, similar to the Lakers channel on TWC.

TWC has yet to engage in negotiations with the five main pay-TV providers in LA (DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse, Charter, Cox and Verizon Fios) and they might have to join the Lakers channel instead of having their own. The subscriber fees would also be the richest in history as MSG charges around $5 a month per customer as time is starting to tick on getting deals done with providers.

It’ll be interesting to see what progress is made in the coming weeks as Dodger fans hope to avoid relatively high subscriber fees in order to watch their team on a daily basis.

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Ross Gasmer

Ross Gasmer is a Social Media Producer for @TheHerd and was a contributing writer and editor for Dodger Nation. Follow him on Twitter @Ross_Gasmer12

3 Comments

  1. I’m not paying any more for any sports channels. It’s gotten out of control. Ridiculous.

  2. TWC wants a seperate channel for the Dodgers paid by the customers or else they have to foot the $7 billion. They cant charge more if they join the Lakers network.

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