Once upon a time, sports fans wanted freedom of choice. Why pay for dozens — or perhaps hundreds — of television channels when all you wanted to do was to see your favorite teams play?
The cable era is in its sunset. Streaming is all the rage. No longer need you pay for channels that feature news, movies, cooking and gardening in order to watch the home team.
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For sports fans, this has become an expensive mess, too.
The Dodgers require one subscription. The Lakers require another. The Angels, Kings and Clippers require another. The Galaxy and LAFC require another. The Ducks require another — although theirs is free for now.
Read more: Shaikin: Why is Dodger Stadium SO LOUD?
Truth be told, the Dodgers and Lakers run L.A. The most valuable sports broadcasting property in town could be one that carries the Dodgers and Lakers.
For many fans in Los Angeles, that might represent freedom of choice: the one and only must-have sports subscription.
Could that future — one broadcast channel and one streaming app for the Dodgers and Lakers — become reality now that Mark Walter, the controlling owner of the Dodgers, is the new controlling owner of the Lakers? Walter hasn’t yet talked publicly about the Lakers deal, so we floated the idea by sports business insiders.
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The Lakers are on Spectrum SportsNet. The Dodgers are on SportsNet LA. Who owns those channels?
Charter Communications, the parent company of Spectrum, owns SportsNet. The Dodgers, through an affiliated company, own SportsNet LA, although Charter operates it and pays the team a rights fee every year, just as it does with the Lakers.
Can Charter walk away from the Lakers deal because of the ownership change?
No.
Could Walter buy out Charter and put the Dodgers and Lakers on the same channel?
In theory, yes. Charter probably would give him the Lakers’ channel for free.
In reality? That appears unlikely any time soon. Walter didn’t get to be a billionaire by turning down half a billion dollars every year.
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Read more: Shaikin: Why Wayne Randazzo and Mark Gubicza might be best Angels broadcast duo in 50 years
Go on.
When Charter’s predecessor, Time Warner Cable, launched the channels for the Lakers in 2012 and the Dodgers in 2014, cable and satellite channels were the way most fans watched their home teams. And, because cable and satellite packages required subscribers to pay for 100 channels even if they only watched five, those cooking and gardening enthusiasts helped enrich all those teams.
Fast forward to today: Nielsen reported that in May — for the first time — more Americans watched television via streaming than via broadcast and cable combined. This so-called “cord cutting” has turned the ownership of most sports channels from an asset to a liability, and many operators have either gone out of business or forced teams to take nine-figure hits to their rights fees.
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What does this have to do with whether I can watch the Dodgers and Lakers on one channel?
The Dodgers’ channel and the Lakers’ channel each lose money. Walter would choose between acquiring a money-losing Lakers channel or keeping intact the two Charter deals that pay the Dodgers and Lakers more than $500 million combined each year. No team in baseball makes as much money from local television as the Dodgers, and no team in basketball makes as much money from local television as the Lakers.
The Lakers’ deal runs through 2032. The Dodgers’ deal runs through 2038.
Why are those dates important?
While other teams are experimenting with various combinations of cable, satellite, streaming and even free TV, the Lakers and Dodgers can cash in on guaranteed income and let those other teams be the guinea pigs for learning what works and what does not work in the new media world.
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Major League Baseball would like to sell a national streaming package in 2028 — one spot to watch your team from wherever you are, with no blackouts — and the NBA figures to explore that option, too. That gives the Dodgers and Lakers a fairly long runway to see what might be best for them, including whether to retain their streaming rights or contribute them to a league package — and what they would require in order to do so.
Might a joint Dodgers-Lakers channel be a long-term solution?
It could be. With the NBA joining MLB in making postseason broadcasts entirely national, the calendar would align nicely: April to September for the Dodgers, October to April for the Lakers. Behind the scenes, one staff could largely replace two.
Read more: Shaikin: How the NFL Sunday Ticket trial could impact baseball’s streaming future
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The time for the single-team sports channel has come and largely gone. The economics are poor, and the enthusiasm for 24-7, all-access coverage of one team has dissipated into the reality that most fans just want to watch the game.
How about Walter adding teams?
Nothing is impossible. Ted Leonsis, who owns the NHL’s Washington Capitals, NBA’s Washington Wizards and WNBA’s Washington Mystics, says the key to sports success could be an ownership bundle: own multiple teams, own the venues in which they play and own the platforms on which fans view their games.
Walter’s investments now include the Dodgers, Lakers and Sparks. SportsNet also airs the Sparks.
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In 2012, Walter and his partners looked into buying AEG, which owns the Kings, the Galaxy and Crypto.comArena. AEG owner Philip Anschutz opted not to sell then, but Walter could renew that pursuit and, if successful, would control the two venues and four teams that call downtown L.A. home.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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