Dodgers again will be tough to find on TV

Vin Scully’s voice is synonymous with Dodgers baseball, but unless Los Angeles fans listen to the beloved sportscaster on the radio, they probably won’t hear him at all this season.

For the second straight year, the Dodgers will open the season with games on their pay-TV channel, Time Warner Cable’s SportsNet LA, blacked out in 70 percent of Los Angeles-area households — including Scully’s home — and all households in Southern Nevada, where TWC isn’t available.

More than two years after TWC agreed to pay the Dodgers $8.35 billion over 25 years to run SportsNet LA, it remains the only major pay-TV distributor that carries the channel, available only to TWC subscribers in Southern California.

Other pay-TV distributors — including Cox Communications, DirecTV and Dish Network — continue to balk at TWC’s asking price of almost $5 a month per subscriber.

“We’re still working through the negotiations process with TWC SportsNet LA and hope we can come to an agreement that does not burden our customers with excessive price increases,” Juergen Barbusca, manager of communications for Cox Communications-Las Vegas, said in an email. “We’re seeking a fair price for this baseball content. We know the Dodgers are popular sports programming for select customers — and there are many fans in the Vegas areas — but it comes at an extremely high price. We’re continuing to work through the negotiations process.”

A DirecTV spokesman declined comment, but the company released the following statement for a Jan. 15 story in the Los Angeles Times: “Time Warner Cable and the Dodgers’ front office owe fans the simple freedom to see Dodger games on TV without obligating every TV customer to bail out Time Warner for its reckless overspending.”

The stalemate isn’t expected to be resolved soon, as TWC reportedly is more focused on its proposed merger with Comcast that has been the subject of a lengthy review by the federal government. Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, is seeking approval for a $45 billion takeover of TWC, the country’s second-largest cable provider.

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, TWC — which industry sources have estimated is losing more than $100 million a year on its deal — has tried unsuccessfully in recent weeks to initiate another round of talks with pay-TV distributors.

Dodgers chairman Mark Walter previously told the Times the team has no interest in renegotiating its $8.35 billion deal with TWC, rejecting suggestions that the Dodgers should take less money in the hope that more providers would carry the channel at a lower price.

“We’re not talking about widows and orphans on the three sides of this transaction,” Walter said.

Until a deal gets done, Dodgers fans in Southern Nevada need not completely despair. They can watch at least 62 Dodgers games this season on DirecTV, Cox and/or the MLB.TV package — though they’d have to listen to the opposing team’s broadcasters.

The Las Vegas market is subject to inexplicable blackout rules for six big league teams — the Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants — but when the aforementioned teams play each other on their respective regional sports networks, the games are not blacked out in Southern Nevada.

As a result, on DirecTV’s basic package, which includes Fox Sports Arizona (Diamondbacks) and Fox Sports West (Angels), 24 Dodgers games will be shown this season: 19 against the Diamondbacks and five against the Angels.

Those purchasing the DirectTV Sports Pack ($13.99 a month) also will receive the regional sports networks for the A’s (Comcast SportsNet California), Padres (Fox Sports San Diego) and Giants (CSN Bay Area), enabling fans to watch an additional 38 Dodgers games: four against the A’s, 15 against the Giants and 19 against the Padres — including the Dodgers’ season-opening series from April 6 to 8 at Dodgers Stadium.

The same games will be available on Cox, which will air 24 Dodgers games on its basic package: the five against the Angels on FSW (49) and 19 against the Padres on Community Channel 96. To watch the Dodgers games against the A’s, Giants and D-Backs, viewers must subscribe to MLB Extra Innings, which costs $195 for the season and offers the home and away telecast for each game. The Dodgers’ feed will be blacked out until their TV deal gets done.

The Extra Innings package also is available on DirecTV for $197.94. The price includes the MLB.TV package, which allows subscribers to watch games on any mobile device. The MLB.TV package, which also offers home and away radio feeds, can be purchased separately for $109.99.

Scully, 87, who is returning for his 66th season with the Dodgers, is expected to call home games and select away games on the West Coast for SportsNet LA. Scully’s first three innings are simulcast on the radio. He can be heard locally on KSHP-AM (1400), which is expected to air most of the Dodgers games.

Until the frustrating situation for Dodgers fans gets resolved, they can always turn down the volume of their TV when their team is on and turn up Scully’s voice on the radio to bask again in the soundtrack of summer.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow him on Twitter: @tdewey33.