If you haven't noticed already, the segmentation of sports broadcasting has continued in the Los Angeles metro area, adding a second exclusive network controlled by Time Warner Cable (for now). This new channel is to be the Dodgers' station, much like TWC Sportsnet is the Lakers' exclusive channel (for most games, not all, and they don't even have broadcasting rights on a few ABC and TNT nationally broadcast games). Remember when a broadcasting network (Fox) carried the games for both teams?....and there wasn't a huge issue about every subscriber for each cable company having to pay more on their monthly bills for this channel?
We all know it, though even to me it seems to be an intangible and instinctual understanding; Time Warner screwed the Lakers with the contract for exclusive broadcasting rights. Which makes the contract with the Dodgers even more puzzling. Yes, Time Warner is a content distributor (for the time being, until the Comcast deal goes through), but that is not where the value of an exclusive sportscasting contract is derived. The value for TWC or anyone who puts out the content is derived from the sale of advertising space. In today's information age, the barrier to entry for broadcasting is extremely low. I can live stream whatever I want straight from my cell phone to the internet. Take a professional sports organization with a bit more capital horsepower and they can stream whatever they want through the web. A sports marketing department (not just a person, but a whole department) is always staffed at professional sports franchises, and is already equipped to sell advertising; it's not too much of a stretch to add another medium to the portfolio. With in-house advertising dollars generated to boost the quality and content of the streaming broadcast, there really isn't a need for a middle-man like TWC. All they do is increase cost to those that are ultimately providing the revenue stream.
This is the ultimate direction of all video content as barriers to entry continue to fall and individual tastes in video entertainment remain diverse. Remember when there was no "cable company" that you had to pay? It's going to come full circle.
I need my Dodgers, but not like this. The insistence by content providers on multiple income streams (subscribers plus advertisers) is closing in on the breaking point that will hasten their demise.
