Dodgers’ New TV Deal Has Some Uncertainties

The Dodgers televise fewer games than any other major league baseball team. They are also one of only five teams without a cable deal.

Ah, but there is some good news--sort of.

The Dodgers this week agreed to televise at least 42 additional games a season, mostly home games, for five years, beginning next season.

The problem, though, is that the agreement is with a service that does not yet exist.

It is called Tele-TV, and is scheduled to launch late this year or early next year.

It is neither a cable network nor a satellite dish service. Tele-TV was created about a year and a half ago by Pacific Telesis and two other phone companies, NYNEX and Bell Atlantic, as an alternative to cable and satellite dishes.

PacTel made Page 1 news this week by merging with Texas-based SBC Communications, the holding company of Southwestern Bell, so the announcement of the Dodger deal got overshadowed.

Tele-TV made its Dodger deal through Tribune Broadcasting, which owns Channel 5, and it ensures that the Dodgers’ flagship station will continue televising about 50 games a season through 2001.

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So, what is Tele-TV?

Technically speaking, it is an MMDS, which stands for multichannel, multi-point distribution system.

But Sandy Grushow, a former Fox executive who is the president of Tele-TV, described it as a digital microwave service.

Even though it was created by phone companies, the signal is not delivered via phone lines. It is a wireless cable system that will offer a digital picture comparable to the one delivered by the new 18-inch dish systems.

The equipment involves a roof antenna--”unlike any roof antenna you’ve ever seen,” Grushow said--and a box for the top of your TV set.

Grushow says the service will be better than cable, offering about 120 channels, and more affordable than a DirecTV 18-inch dish system, which offers about 175 channels.

“There is no equipment to buy with our service, and the monthly cost will be about what people now pay for cable,” he said.

“The advantage we have over DirecTV, besides the cost, is we can provide local stations along with all the traditional cable channels.”

DirecTV subscribers have to use either a roof antenna or cable to get local stations.

“People who cannot get the local stations with a roof antenna have to pay for both DirecTV and cable to get them,” Grushow said.

Tele-TV sounds good, but will subscribers have to pay extra for the Dodger package?

Here, Grushow hedged.

“We want to do what is in the best interest of the Dodgers as well as our viewers,” he said. “But the plan now is to make the Dodger package available as part of our basic service with no additional charge.”

Sam Fernandez, the Dodgers’ general counsel, said the team’s desire is to distribute the telecasts as part of a basic service. Previously, the Dodgers had always insisted that any supplemental package be part of a pay service.

“Yes, our thinking has changed,” Fernandez said. “This is a switch for us. But we’re very excited about being involved with this new technology.”

Fernandez and the Dodgers had also been in negotiations with Prime Sports, but Prime’s efforts to make a deal were unsuccessful.

The Tele-TV deal reportedly will increase what the Dodgers make off local television from $15.5 million to nearly $20 million a year.

The “extra innings” baseball package DirecTV offers for $119 a season ($139 after April 14) delivers about 1,000 games a season, but no Dodger or Angel games in L.A.

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TV-Radio Notes

Jeff Torborg, who this week accepted a job with Fox as a baseball commentator for 18 Saturday telecasts beginning June 1, said he turned down an offer to be the Angel commentator on both Channel 9 and Prime Sports because there were too many games. “I still have two years left on my CBS radio contract, and that’s a pretty full schedule,” he said from his home in Sarasota, Fla. . . . Fox this week also made it official that Tim McCarver will be its No. 1 baseball analyst, and added former NBC whiz Michael Weisman to its baseball production team. . . . Recommended viewing: “The Life and Times of Bobby Jones” on CBS Sunday at 11 a.m. The executive producer of the show is Terry Jastrow, even though he is ABC’s lead golf producer. Jastrow is also the head of Jack Nicklaus Productions, which created the show. It was originally narrated by Ben Wright, but after his departure from CBS, actor Sean Connery was brought in to do a voice-over. . . . The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 14 will be previewed in a special on Channel 7 Sunday at 1:30 p.m. . . . The 18.3 national rating for Monday night’s NCAA title game was the lowest since the game has been played in prime time, and the rating in Los Angeles was only a 15.0.

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Tuning In

A sampling of Los Angeles Nielsen ratings for sports programs March 29-31. FRIDAY, March 29 *--*

Event Ch. Rating Baseball: Dodgers-Angels 9 6.8 Basketball: Lakers-Atlanta 9 4.6

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SATURDAY, March 30 *--*

Event Ch. Rating NCAA: Kentucky-Massachusetts 2 10.1 NCAA: Syracuse-Mississippi State 2 7.7 Golf: Players Championship 4 3.2 Gymnastics: International Cup 2 2.9 Bowling: PBA at Sunrise, Fla. 7 2.0 NBA: Clippers-Chicago 13 1.5 Golf: Dinah Shore 7 1.2

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SUNDAY, March 31

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Event Ch. Rating NBA: Lakers-Toronto 9 5.0 NBA: New York-Orlando 4 5.0 Golf: Players Championship 4 3.3 Auto racing: Indy car race 7 2.6 Golf: Dinah Shore 7 1.7 NBA: Clippers-Minnesota 13 1.4 Hockey: St. Louis-Detroit 11 1.2

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