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The Latest: FCC Chairman Sends Blisteringly Angry Letter to Time Warner Cable About the L.A. Dodgers TV Standoff

Jul 30, 2014  •  Post A Comment

“The Federal Communications Commission is not happy with Time Warner Cable about the Dodgers TV situation,” writes Joe Flint in the Los Angeles Times. Flint continues, “In a blistering letter to Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Rob Marcus, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler criticized the company for its inability to reach agreements with other area pay-TV distributors for SportsNet LA, the new Dodgers-owned channel.”

In his letter, Wheeler — who also happens to be a former president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) when it was known as the National Cable Television Association — wrote, according to the story, “I am writing to express my strong concern about how your actions appear to have created the inability of consumers in the Los Angeles area to watch televised games of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The FCC will continue to monitor this dispute closely and will intervene as appropriately necessary to bring relief to consumers.”

The story adds, “Wheeler sent the letter to Marcus on Tuesday after conversations about the standoff with Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Los Angeles), who had written the FCC to weigh in on the matter, and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills).”

The article also notes: “A Time Warner Cable spokeswoman said the company is ‘grateful for the FCC’s intervention and happy to work with them to gain carriage for the Dodgers.’ The spokeswoman added that Time Warner Cable hopes that Wheeler is “is making similar inquiries of DirecTV and other LA television distributors to determine their rationale for refusing to carry SportsNet LA.”

“An FCC spokeswoman said for now Wheeler has only written Time Warner Cable.”

Time Warner Cable has said it is williing to enter arbitration with other distributors to settle the dispute.

On that note Flint writes, “DirecTV is not in favor of arbitration. ‘Rather than force everyone to bail Time Warner Cable out, the simplest solution is to enable only those who want to pay to see the remaining Dodger games to do so at the price Time Warner Cable wants to set,’ a DirecTV spokesman said, adding that people who aren’t sports fans should not have to pay for Time Warner Cable’s ‘excess.'”

To read all the details about this story we urge you to click on our link in the top paragraph, above, which will take you to Flint’s original story.

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