Dodgers Cable TV Channel Launched

The Dodgers and Time Warner Cable announced Wednesday the start of a new on-demand channel offering free round-the-clock Dodgers content to Time Warner digital cable customers.

“Dodgers on Demand” can be accessed by those customers through Channel 1, where icons direct viewers to such programming as original highlights, exclusive interviews and analysis. The channel also offers Spanish-language content.

Archival material includes such things as highlights from the team’s 1981 World Series victory.

“If I can’t sleep at 4 a.m., I can get up and watch highlights from Game 6,” said former third baseman Ron Cey, who was at Wednesday’s news conference at Dodger Stadium. In that series, Cey helped the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in six games and shared series MVP honors.

With the recent takeover of Adelphia and Comcast cable systems, Time Warner serves about 1.9 million homes in the greater Los Angeles market, of which about 60% have digital cable.

Although Time Warner is embroiled in a dispute with NFL Network over carriage fees, Wednesday’s announcement was not designed to distract viewers from that fight, according to Jeff Hirsch, president of Time Warner Cable in Los Angeles.

“Just bad timing,” he said.

Hirsch also said the “Dodgers on Demand” project has been in the works for about four months and that there are no plans to enter into similar arrangements with other L.A. teams.

-- Larry Stewart