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Most Dodgers fans miss out on Kershaw’s no-hitter

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The Colorado Rockies weren’t the only ones shut out last night.

According to Nielsen, only 52,000 people saw Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw no-hit the Rockies Wednesday night.

It’s not that the Dodgers have lame fans. The numbers were low because the majority of the market doesn’t have access to SportsNet LA, the new team-owned channel that is distributed by Time Warner Cable and currently only available to those subscribers.

Other distributors, including satellite broadcasters DirecTV and Dish Network and cable operators Cox and Charter have not signed deals to carry SportsNet LA. At issue is the price Time Warner Cable is charging for access to the channel. Overall, about 70% of the Los Angeles market is literally blacked out when it comes to watching the Dodgers.

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While Time Warner Cable continues to neogitate with DirecTV and others, there is no progress to report, people close to the talks said.

Frustration among fans, who took to Twitter to vent about the situation, seems primarily directed at the Dodgers for their record 25-year TV deal with Time Warner Cable, which is worth $8.35 billion, according to a valuation by Major League Baseball and the Dodgers.

Before this season, most Dodgers games were on Fox-owned Prime Ticket. The average audience was 226,000 per-game.

Follow Joe Flint on Twitter @JBFlint.

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