Dispute Over #Dodgers Games Could Be Defining Moment in Sports Programming

I've been bummed about this all season, as regular readers will recall, but what are you going to do? I get Cox Communications, and they're not budging in negotiations.

I blame the Dodgers personally, and I know they're taking a lot of heat from the fans. The owners aren't pleased, for sure, but the gods of corporate profit must be appeased. No baseball at all otherwise.

A great piece, at the Los Angeles Times, "Dodgers remain off most TVs in L.A. as dispute continues":

The Dodgers are in first place in their division and gunning for a berth in the World Series in October. But as the second half of the season begins Friday, most local fans aren't able to watch any of it on television.

Off the field no progress has been made in the standoff between Time Warner Cable, which is distributing the new Dodgers-owned channel SportsNet LA, and area pay-TV providers including DirecTV, Dish Network, Charter Communications and Cox Communications.

"It is unlikely that we are going to get a deal done," David Rone, president of Time Warner Cable Sports, acknowledged for the first time this week.

Dodgers President Stan Kasten called the situation "extremely troubling" and urged everyone to "return to the table to continue to work to try to make a deal as quickly as possible."

Before the start of the 162-game season, many observers expected that pressure from fans would force the pay-TV providers to the negotiating table, or face mass defections. That's what usually has happened in the past. But not this time.

Instead, Time Warner Cable and the providers are deadlocked in what could become a definitive moment for the world of sports programming, as the industry realizes that exorbitantly priced television deals can backfire...

Keep reading.