DIRECTV May Throw Curve at New Dodgers Channel
By Philip Swann
TVPredictions.com
http://www.tvpredictions.com/tvone021814.htm
Washington, D.C. (February 18, 2014) - DIRECTV, which once aggressively
added regional sports networks to its basic programming packages, may
refuse to add the new Time Warner Cable-owned Los Angeles Dodgers
channel unless it can be offered as a separate, a la carte channel.
On February 25, Time Warner Cable will launch SportsNet LA, which will
carry 22 Dodger spring training games this season and more than 140
regular season contests. The cable operator, which was recently
purchased by Comcast (pending approval by federal regulators), paid a
whopping $8.35 billion over 25 years for the rights to Dodgers' games.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Dan York, DIRECTV's chief content
officer, says the high price that Time Warner Cable paid for the rights
to the Dodgers games demands that the cable operator charge a high fee
to carry it. York adds that his company may not be willing to pay it.
"Time Warner Cable has unilaterally decided to pay an unprecedented high
price and now wants all of their customers as well as those of their
competitors, none of which who had any say in the matter, to pick up
that tab," York says, according to the Times.
FierceCable.com writes that York added that "it would be reasonable to
ask that only families who truly want to pay for the Dodgers actually
pay for it."
In recent months, DIRECTV has taken a similar stance with the Pac 12
Network and Comcast Sports Houston, saying it should be allowed to offer
the channels via the a la carte method, which means a subscriber would
pay a monthly fee for them only if he wanted to. (DIRECTV has yet to add
the two channels.)
That would enable DIRECTV to pay less to carry the channels because
fewer subscribers would actually get it. In a basic tier, the channel is
added whether the subscriber wants it or not, which means more customers
would get it and DIRECTV would have to pay more to carry it. Fees are
based on how many subscribers can watch the channel.
DIRECTV, which has billed itself as the industry's sports leader, has
adopted the a la carte position in recent negotiations because it says
the cost of sports programming is rising dramatically.
The satcaster may not be the only TV provider in the Los Angeles market
that doesn't carry Sports Net LA. The Times writes that Cox also
expressed concern about the channel's cost, which some have speculated
could be as high as $5 a month per subscriber.
As of now, only Time Warner Cable is set to carry the channel in the
Sports Net LA market.
_______________________________________________
Medianews mailing list
[email protected]
http://etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews_etskywarn.net
