L.A Times: No guarantee the Dodgers will return to local TV in 2015

[Auggie]

Steve Dilbeck, L.A. Times, on what he calls "a prolonged battle between the super-rich."

Here we are, remarkably having gone an entire season without the Dodgers being broadcast on local television to anyone who doesn’t subscribe to Time Warner Cable -- which we’re told is 70% of the Los Angeles market, though who would be surprised if it were actually more?

If it seems impossible to have reached this point, best hang on to that remote. There is positively no guarantee the Dodgers will return to local TV in 2015.

Incredible, huh? The two-time division winners, with the wealthiest payroll in baseball, with maybe the wealthiest owners, and a deal cannot be struck to broadcast their SportsNet LA channel to most of the Los Angeles market.

SNIP

Things have been put on hold while mergers between mega-conglomerates are examined by the feds. The first one up -- between Comcast and Time Warner Cable -- doesn’t have to be decided by the Federal Communication Commission until March 30. That’s a whole six days before the season opener and the FCC has already delayed a ruling twice. And then there’s the merger between AT&T and DirecTV, which also may be approved in the first quarter of the year.

FULL STORY: http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/dodgersnow/la-sp-dn-dodgers-tv-20150117-story.html

[KamaAina]

1. KamaAina: No guarantee the Dodgers will return to the playoffs in 2015