Availability of Final LA Dodgers Games From Time Warner Cable Seen Tied To Mediation
Time Warner Cable’s decision to make Los Angeles Dodgers games available on KDOC-TV Anaheim, California, is probably influenced by pressure to avoid upsetting lawmakers and regulators while its takeover by Comcast is pending, some observers said in interviews Tuesday. Attorneys and sports media consultants previously said the FCC doesn’t have jurisdiction over the pricing of TWC-owned SportsNet LA, but TWC has the Comcast transaction to consider (CD July 31 p6).
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TWC, which bought exclusive rights to the games, secured the agreement Monday to broadcast the final week of Dodgers games on KDOC, which is carried by Cox Communications, DirecTV, Dish Network, Verizon and other providers, TWC said in a news release. The remaining games will be simulcast starting Sept. 22, it said. The cable operator again said it’s willing to enter binding arbitration to reach a deal, but other providers refused the offer.
The FCC “will continue to go to bat for consumers in resolving programming disputes,” Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement (http://bit.ly/1Dg0HZB). “We hope that long-term agreements will be the next step and can be achieved quickly without depriving fans of any regular season games next year."
Regulators and lawmakers may have been successful in putting pressure on TWC, said a cable attorney not part of its takeover by Comcast. The operator wants something from the commission, he said referring to Comcast/TWC. When a company is in a position like that with the FCC, “it’s more prone to that kind of pressure,” he said.
DirecTV said it’s pleased that fans can see the rest of the season on local TV, but wants a different outcome next season. “While six games on local broadcast is hardly the same as the 50 in-season games customers had available for free last year, we find the trend encouraging,” a DirecTV spokesman said. DirecTV hopes TWC “avoids alienating fans again for the 2015 season,” he said.
The games on TV are likely related to the mediation, said a broadcast attorney not participating in the matter. There’s very little the FCC can do about the pricing, he said, referring to SportsNet LA’s reported pricing of $4 a month per subscriber. “They just don’t have clear jurisdiction there.”
TWC wants to present itself in the best possible light and show that the deal is in the best interest of subscribers, said Mary Kelly, a media economics assistant professor at Villanova University. While the FCC can’t dictate price, the commission “will be a decision maker when it comes to the takeover review,” she said. The dispute supports arguments from opponents of the transaction “that vertically integrated content providers can hold up valuable content and make it unavailable on reasonable terms to their competitors,” she said. Although TWC’s action is late in the season, it still matters, she said. This will probably be a factor that’s played out in the transaction decision “with some strings attached to the deal to handle these kinds of situations,” she said.