Time Warner Will Pass On Dodgers Channel Costs to Subscribers

According to Josh Kosman and Claire Atkinson of the New York Post, Time Warner is “expected to ask for $5 a month per subscriber, a fee that would escalate to $8 over five years” in order to offset the cost of Time Warner’s gigantic deal with the Dodgers for their rights.

While I will no doubt pay whatever fees Time Warner Cable should throw at me to watch my Dodger baseball, I think that some TWC subscribers will be a bit soured on this upcoming escalation of their cable package fees which are already arguably too much.

SportsNet LA will carry the Dodgers games and programming exclusively.

Last season a lot of Dodger fans in the Southern California area had to miss Dodger games due to Time Warner Cable’s blackout of KCAL 9. No Dodger fan should be withheld their baseball, and finding other avenues to watch the game was stressful and put a bit of a damper on the exciting season. Luckily Time Warner and CBS finally came to an agreement and ended the unnecessary blackout in early September.

I’m hearing a lot of worry from fans whom don’t have Time Warner, and they should be rightfully concerned since other carriers might balk at the high price to carry SportsNet LA. Time Warner expects to offer the Dodgers channel in their basic cable package and not a separate sports package addition which would mean the $5 increase would be on the basic cable package.

Time Warner and the Dodgers agreed to a staggering $8 billion 25-year deal for the Dodgers rights. This was the most expensive deal for a single sports team in history.

Time Warner will need to come to agreements with the other pay-TV providers soon. AT&T’s U-verse, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, DirecTV, and Verizon FiOS are the main providers in the L.A. area.

What do you think of the planned cable cost increase? Is it worth it for an exclusive Dodgers channel? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

I look forward to seeing a Dodgers network, but hopefully the lucrative deal will not cause the other carriers to not agree to include SportsNet LA in their lineup. We will keep you posted on any new developments in this story.