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New Lakers stars give Time Warner Cable reason to cheer

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Lakers fans aren’t the only ones cheering the recent additions of Steve Nash and Dwight Howard to the team’s starting lineup.

Time Warner Cable is also probably sending Lakers brass a big thank-you note. In October, Time Warner Cable will launch both English-language and Spanish-language sports channels in Los Angeles, and a strong Lakers team is key to the company’s success.

The addition of two superstars to the team will give the cable company a little more juice in negotiations for distribution with satellite broadcasters DirecTV and Dish as well as AT&T;’s Uverse and other pay-TV providers in the region.

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So far, the only distributor Time Warner Cable has persuaded to carry its two channels is itself. Though Time Warner Cable has about 2 million subscribers in Southern California, it needs the other distributors, particularly DirecTV, to be a success.

Time Warner Cable is asking distributors to pay almost $4.00 per-month, per-subscriber to carry the two channels. That’s more than any other regional sports network in the country, according to industry consulting from SNL Kagan.

With over 1 million subscribers in this area, DirecTV is crucial. But the satellite broadcaster has been playing hardball with programmers as of late. It got into a very public battle with Viacom, parent of Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, over a new deal and even stopped carrying its channels until the two finally reached an agreement.

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Although the launch of Time Warner Cable’s sports networks is only about six weeks away, talks with DirecTV and other distributors are not likely to heat up until mid-to-late September.

If DirecTV ends up not reaching a deal with Time Warner Cable, sports fans won’t be totally out of luck. DirecTV just signed an agreement to carry beIn Sport, an Al Jazeera-owned sports channel that specializes in soccer.

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