The carriage fee of the new Time Warner RSN in Los Angeles

[radiojomo]

From an article published a few weeks ago on Deadline about the new Time Warner Cable SportsNet in Los Angeles, Sports Business Daily stated that TWC's new RSN in Los Angeles is asking $3.95 per subscriber in the Los Angeles for the new Lakers network. Even outside LA, the network is asking for $1.25 per head, more than the NFL Network (which is around 0.75 per sub.
ESPN is around $4.50-$5 per sub. Chances are other cable/satellite/fiber optic companies aren't happy with the price when FSWest is already around $2.37+.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/time-warner-cable-sports-dodgers-tv-rights/

Time Warner has a hold on the majority of the Los Angeles/Orange County area when it comes to cable. Only portions of LA/OC have Charter and Cox as a provider. Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse also have a nice imprint in the market, along with Dish and DIRECTV.

Is the per head cost of this network too high for the content it will provide? Is this just a way for TWC to make the Lakers exclusive in Los Angeles and try to destroy the satellite/fiber optic tv sub Laker fan base? Will this move affect the Lakers organization at all?

 

[Robnoxious]

Is the per head cost of this network too high for the content it will provide? Is this just a way for TWC to make the Lakers exclusive in Los Angeles and try to destroy the satellite/fiber optic tv sub Laker fan base? Will this move affect the Lakers organization at all?

TWC pretty much all ready locked the Lakers as their exclusive content for the next 2 decades. In a basketball heavy town there isn't a whole lot anyone can do about it. You want to watch any Lakers game over the next 20 years, open your wallet. The sub price of $3.95 is a bit steep for just the Lakers. Unless TWC can lock down more local rights and I'm sure their goal is to get all of the big local teams, the price doesn't justify the content offered.

Invariably what is going to happen is carriers like Cox and Charter with perhaps Verizon and DISH as well might be stuck on the outside looking in while everyone in TWC territory are going to see their cable bill rise yet again. This could be a similar standoff Comcast and Charter had with the NFL network. No doubt, TWC will place their RSN squarely in the basic tier so than can get that juicy 4 extra bucks out of all of their subscribers. Granny Gums in Pasadena who hasn't watched a basketball game since Lou Alcinder will write her monthly check to TWC and will never venture into any of the channels she's paying for and TWC is banking on that. It's legalized extortion.

The breaking point is coming, it just has to. The rise of cable/sat costs is real close to complete saturation if it's not there all ready. At some point the consumer will back lash en mass and cut cable/sat to it's most basic package. It's starting to happen but not at a fast enough rate for the cable/sat carriers to flinch. I got out of the cable game for this reason alone. I see cable as more of a luxury than a necessity and the tide is turning for others to adopt the same opinion.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Estimated price of all sports channels on the basic tier on Time Warner Los Angeles:

ESPN: $4.57
ESPN2: $0.78
FS West: $2.37
TWCSN: $3.95
Golf: $0.20
Speed: $0.25
Total: $12.12

That's a big chunk of the average cable bill -- especially for Granny in Pasadena.

 

[DToTheJ]

And don't forget, Fox will be starting their own new version of ESPN soon (which is rumored to be launched from the current Fuel network).