A Few More Dodgers Fans Will Finally Get To Watch Them On TV Thanks To Charter/TWC Merger

The circled lavender areas are among those that will finally get access to Dodgers broadcasts in the coming weeks. No word on when, or if, customers of Cox (or DirecTV or Dish) will also be able to watch the team.

The Los Angeles Dodgers currently hold a narrow lead in the National League West over the San Francisco Giants, but many Dodgers fans can’t watch their favorite team play because Time Warner Cable hates everyone who doesn’t have Time Warner Cable and has been unwilling to share the SportsNet LA network it co-owns with the team. That is until today, when Charter and its well-heeled backers lobbed $55 billion their way.

Charter has around 300,000 customers in the L.A. area, and just like all the other major pay-TV providers in the region, it refused to pay TWC’s price for carrying a cable channel that doesn’t even carry any of the other L.A. area teams’ games.

But with the Connecticut-based cable company now betrothed to TWC, Charter’s CEO Tom Rutledge says that customers in areas like Burbank, Glendale, Long Beach, and Malibu will be getting access to SportsNet LA in the coming weeks.

Time Warner Cable recently released a statement that if people want SportsNet LA “we encourage them to switch to a provider that carries the network,” without any regard to the fact that the hundreds of thousands of Charter and Cox customers have no options for switching to another cable company.

But Rutledge, who will take over as CEO of the merged companies, is being less miserly about the channel.

“We want the Dodgers on every outlet and we are committed to making that happen,” he told the L.A. Times in an interview after announcing the merger.

He also said that the company would need to take a serious looks SportsNet LA’s finances. The channel has been losing money as owners balked at lowering their asking price or at the idea of putting the station on a premium sports tier for only customers who want it.

While Charter will carry the channel, it remains to be seen if TWC will ease its stranglehold on Dodgers broadcasts as the company prepares to once again venture into the waters of regulatory review.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist