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Vin Scully returns for his 66th season with the Dodgers

T

Thomps2525

Guest
In July of 2014, Vin Scully announced that he will return to the Dodgers broadcast booth in 2015. It will be his 66th year with the team. However, Scully, who is 87, will call fewer games than last season. He will not broadcast road games outside of California and Arizona unless the Dodgers are in playoff contention late in the season.

Time Warner SportsNet LA will televise 31 Cactus League games of the Dodgers, beginning March 4. Scully will call at least four of those games. And in 2015, same as 2014, 70% of Los Angeles tv viewers will be unable to watch the games...unless they buy a ticket to Dodger Stadium and pay the outrageous new $20 parking fee. In January 2013, the Dodgers entered into a 25-year $8.35-billion deal with Time Warner Cable, which promptly set up a Dodgers channel but could not get AT&T, Cox, Charter, Verizon, Dish, DirecTV or any of the other tv providers to pay a monthly fee of $4.50 to $5 per subscriber. Thus, only Time Warner subscribers can see the Dodgers on tv. DirecTV wanted to charge a fee for only those subscribers who want to watch the Dodgers but Time Warner said no to that. Hey, they have to recoup that $8.35 billion somehow! Industry observers say that no deal will be reached until summer...if even then.

Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable instituted a new $2.75 fee on January 1. It's called a "sports programming fee." I call it a "Dodgers programming fee"---they can't fool me!
 
In 2014, only 30% of the local population---the Time Warner Cable subscribers--- could watch the Dodgers on television...and the Dodgers set a season record for home-game attendance: 3,782,337. Coincidence? I think not!

The four Cactus League games which Scully will call will be the March 27 game versus the Giants and the April 2-3-4 "Freeway Series" with the Angels. Scully has been broadcasting Dodgers games since 1950 and I expect that this will be his final season.....but if he returned for a 67th season, I wouldn't be surprised!
 
In a column in today's Los Angeles Times, Bill Plaschke notes that the Yankees, who have their own network, YES, will broadcast 15 games on WPIX-Channel 11 this season. WPIX will also show 25 Mets games. The Giants will televise three spring training games and 15 regular-season games on KNTV-Channel 11. The Phillies will show eleven games on WCAU-Channel 10. The Cubs will televise 70 games on a combination of over-the-air stations.

And then we have Time Warner Cable and the Dodgers. In 2015, just as in 2014, 70% of television viewers in Los Angeles County will be unable to see the games unless they buy a ticket and go to the stadium. Of the 15 Giants games which will be shown on KNTV-Channel 11, four are against the Dodgers. That means that Dodgers fans in San Francisco will be able to watch more Dodgers games on tv than Dodgers fans in Los Angeles. *Sigh*
 
A Time Warner spokesman insists that they're still negotiating with other tv providers but the exhibition season is well underway and those who have Dish, DirecTV, Charter, Cox, Verizon or AT&T U-verse are still unable to watch the Dodgers. However, Mrs. Rewind loves the Seattle Mariners and we pay extra to be able to watch the regional Root Sports channels on DirecTV. Right now---March 15---the Mariners are playing the Dodgers and the game is not blacked out! Apparently Time Warner's multi-billion-dollar deal can keep the Dodgers off local channels but not off the Root Sports channels. Of course we're getting the Seattle feed, which means we hear Rick Rizzs, Dave Sims and Mike Blowers instead of Vin Scully, but we get to see at least one Dodger game on tv this season!
 
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