Time Warner Cable has been trying to sign DirecTV, Dish Network, Charter Communications, AT&T U-Verse, Cox Communications and Verizon FiOS for carriage of its new Sports Net LA, which carries the LA Dodgers. It launched on Time Warner Cable systems in February. The other pay TV distributors are balking at carrying the channel, saying TWC is demanding fees that are too high. At more than $4 per month per subscriber, the channel would cost pay TV subscribers in the region more than $50 a year for the channel — whether those customers watch the Dodgers or not.
With more than a quarter of the season already played, Time Warner still hasn’t been able to complete deals with any major MVPDs to carry the new all-Dodgers channel, which has left about 70% of fans in the region unable to watch games.
That’s been very good for radio. Last month, reports Southern California Public Radio, as the AQH for CCME’s KLAC-AM Fox Sports 570, the Dodgers’ Los Angeles flagship, was up a whopping 78% on weeknights – when games aired on 14 of 22 nights – over last April. An average of 14,400 people were listening during any 15-minute period from 7 p.m. to midnight last month, versus an average of 8,100 in April 2013, according to Nielsen ratings numbers analyzed by KPCC-FM LA.
The share of the local radio audience listening to Dodger games went from 3.3 in April 2013 to 6.5 last month.
Fox Sports 570’s weeknight cume rating was up 19% last month compared to last April.
Meanwhile, an average of just 45,000 households are watching games on TV, according to Nielsen. That’s a drop of nearly 63%, according to the Los Angeles Times.
See the Southern California Public Radio story here
