Cable Dispute Could Cost Baseball Fans

For years, cable television operators enjoyed monopolies, and such things as customer service and public relations were foreign to most.

Customers had nowhere to turn, so why bother?

Now there is competition in the form of mini-satellite dish services such as DirecTV, but some operators are still more concerned with profits than satisfying customers.

That kind of thinking may be at the root of a major conflict that could result in about half the Southern California cable market being deprived of Dodger and Angel games and other programming on Fox Sports West’s two outlets.

Four major Southern California cable operators-- MediaOne, Charter, Comcast and Time Warner, which service 1.69 million households--are resisting a rate increase by Fox Sports West, and things could get ugly.

This conflict is different from the one between Fox Sports West and Marcus Cable, which services Glendale and some San Gabriel Valley communities.

The problem there is that Marcus, which has merged with Charter Communications, is required to pay a slightly higher rate than Charter systems, and Marcus has resisted.

After months of negotiations, Fox Sports West cut off its signal to Marcus for West and West 2 last weekend, and a federal judge backed Fox Sports West when Marcus tried to get a restraining order.

Marcus regional manager Tom Belcher said, “We have an obligation to offer our customers quality programming at a reasonable rate.”

Marcus had a rate increase of 93 cents on June 1, but Belcher, citing a 40% hike in programming costs, says that increase is below the industry average.

Meanwhile, the larger problem with the four major operators has to do with Fox Sports West increasing its monthly surcharge. The rate increase is coming, Fox Sports West says, because there are more Dodger and Angel telecasts this season. The Dodgers went from 40 games to 80 on West 2, the Angels from 30 to 50 on West.

The increase for West 2 goes into effect July 6, the date of its 40th Dodger game. The rate increase for West is set for Aug. 3, the date of its 30th Angel game.

Fox Sports West spokesman Steve Webster described the increase as “pennies.”

Industry sources say the increase is about 15 cents per subscriber per month. If you’re talking 500,000 subscribers, that’s certainly more than pennies.

But we all have to live with increased costs.

Century, TCI and Cox have accepted the increase. So has DirecTV.

“If a Ralphs gets twice as much cereal from General Mills, it’s going to have to pay more,” Webster said.

Kitty Cohen, Fox Sports West general manager, said, “The Dodgers used to be one of the least televised teams in baseball, and now, between us and [Channel 5] there will be 130 Dodger games on television this season.”

Not for Marcus customers, and possibly not for a lot of other cable subscribers, either.

BAD TASTE ADVERTISING

If there were an award for bad taste in advertising, Fox Sports--the big network, not the cable guys-- would win for an ad that ran last week on local radio for Saturday’s Angel-Dodger game on Fox.

The ad had people supposedly representing Southern California saying either “Dodgers rule” or “Angels rule.” It insulted just about everyone. It mocked the Chinese, it mocked convenience store owners, it mocked actors and homosexuals. But the worst was mocking people with Tourette’s syndrome. The purpose for that, it seemed, was so it could include an obscenity that was barely bleeped out.

You wonder what kind of mind would even think up such stuff. I guess that’s the Fox attitude.

SHORT WAVES

Odds are, John Elway will not end up in the “Monday Night Football” booth, and that Al Michaels and Boomer Esiason will work without a third partner. . . . Troy Aikman appeared as a guest analyst on a Fox NFL Europe game Sunday and, when Ray Bentley and Bill Maas gave him a chance to talk, he wasn’t bad. Aikman went to Europe to work some DirecTV telecasts with his friend, Cowboy radio announcer Brad Sham. . . . The first Track and Field Assn. meet, the TFA ProChampionships, on ESPN Sunday was a good show and drew a respectable 0.8 national rating.

Speedvision has extensive coverage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which begins Saturday at 6:30 a.m. . . . KEZY (1190) is offering radio coverage of the Sparks’ home games, with Larry Burnett calling the action. NBC opens its WNBA coverage Saturday at 1 p.m., with Mike Breen and Ann Meyers Drysdale calling the action. NBC has three Sparks games, beginning July 17. . . . Fox Sports West’s Spencer Willets won a local Emmy for non-news editing and Fox Sports West 2 won another for the high school show, “Inside Cal-High Sports.”

There is a women’s boxing card on pay-per-view tonight at 6, and don’t snicker. This is the fifth such show promoted by Rick Kulis of Event Sports in Torrance since 1997, and he says all have been profitable. Tonight’s main event from Bossier City, La., features Leah Mellinger vs. Hannah Fox in a welterweight title bout, but the headliner might be Sumya Anani, who faces Dora Webber in a co-feature. Anani beat Christy Martin in December in Florida and virtually knocked her into retirement. The $19.95 card is available in 35 million cable households, plus on big satellite dish systems via TVN and on the mini-satellite Dish Network.

IN CLOSING

Just when you thought you’d seen the last of Dennis Rodman, E! Entertainment offers a one-hour in-depth look on its “True Hollywood Story” series Sunday at 8 p.m. Do we really need another look? Anyway, if you’re a Rodman fan, it’s a pretty good look. Former Detroit Piston Bill Laimbeer sums up Rodman’s Laker days by saying, “He lost track of working hard for his primary job and that was to play basketball. The Lakers counted on him to help win a championship and he went south.”

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for June 5-6, including sports on cable networks: SATURDAY

*--*

Over-the-air Channel Rating Share NBA playoffs: Indiana at New York 4 8.7 20 Tennis: French Open, women’s final 4 6.6 21 Horse racing: Belmont Stakes 7 5.7 16 Baseball: Angels at Dodgers 11 4.2 12 Golf: Memorial tournament 2 2.9 9 Golf: U.S. Women’s Open 4 1.4 4 Bowling: Las Vegas Showboat Invitational 2 1.3 4

*--*

****

*--*

Cable Network Rating Share Boxing: Roy Jones Jr. vs. Reggie Johnson HBO 1.7 3 Horse racing: Belmont Stakes preliminaries ESPN 0.4 1 Auto racing: Busch Grand National 200 TNN 0.3 1 Auto racing: CART Miller Lite 225 qualifying ESPN2 0.3 1 Golf: Senior Cadillac NFL Classic ESPN 0.2 1 Baseball: Atlanta at Boston TBS 0.2 1 Baseball: Texas at Arizona FX 0.2 0 NFL Europe: Amsterdam at Frankfurt FSW 0.1 0

*--*

****

SUNDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating NBA playoffs: San Antonio at Portland 4 8.4 Tennis: French Open, men’s final 4 5.3 Golf: Memorial tournament 2 4.1 Auto racing: CART Miller Lite 225 7 1.9 Soccer: U.S. women vs. Canada (delayed, 12:30 a.m.) 7 1.6 Golf: U.S. Women’s Open 4 1.3 NFL Europe: Scotland at Barcelona 11 1.1

Over-the-air Share NBA playoffs: San Antonio at Portland 18 Tennis: French Open, men’s final 20 Golf: Memorial tournament 11 Auto racing: CART Miller Lite 225 5 Soccer: U.S. women vs. Canada (delayed, 12:30 a.m.) 10 Golf: U.S. Women’s Open 4 NFL Europe: Scotland at Barcelona 3

*--*

****

*--*

Cable Network Rating Share Baseball: Angels at Dodgers FSW2 2.0 5 Auto racing: Winston Cup MBNA Platinum 400 TNN 1.3 4 Baseball: New York Mets vs. New York Yankees ESPN 1.3 3 Boxing: Jose Luis Gonzalez vs. Alex Stewart FSW 1.0 2 Horse racing: Hollywood Park Today FSW 0.9 2 Baseball: Atlanta at Boston TBS 0.8 2 Golf: Senior Cadillac NFL Classic ESPN 0.6 2 Soccer: MLS, Kansas City at Galaxy ESPN 0.5 1 Track and field: TFA Invitational ESPN 0.5 1 Drag racing: NHRA Route 66 Nationals ESPN2 0.4 1 Baseball: Chicago Cubs at Cleveland WGN 0.3 1 Boxing: U.S. Women’s Amateur Championships ESPN2 0.3 1

*--*

WEEKDAY RATINGS: Monday--NBA playoffs, Indiana at New York, Channel 4, 8.9/15. Tuesday--Stanley Cup finals, Buffalo at Dallas, Channel 11, 3.1/6. Wednesday--NBA playoffs, New York at Indiana, Channel 4, 9.9/18.

Note: Each rating point represents 51,350 L.A. households. Cable ratings reflect the entire market, even though cable is in only 63% of L.A. households.