LA Carriers Balk At SportsNet Fees

SportsNet LA, a glitzy 24/7 Dodgers channel, made its debut Tuesday. However, according to USAToday, a large segment of fans in the team's viewing area weren't able to view the rollout due to distribution issues with various cable and satellite companies.

Time Warner Cable is paying the club $8.35 billion over 25 years to run and distribute the network, which will televise at least 140 games this season.

The battle lines are being drawn in yet another showdown between a sports network and the major distributors. DirecTV, Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse are among the carriers balking at charging their subscribers $4.50-$5 month per month to carry SportsNet LA.

ESPN, by comparison, gets about $5.40 per home, TNT $1.20.

YES, the network of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, charges the highest fee for a regional sports network, at $3.20 per subscriber.

David Rone, TWC Sports president, won't get into specifics about his network's fee. As for negotiations over carriage deals for SportsNet LA, he said, "This is par for the course."

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