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After six-year stalemate, Dodgers games will finally have a bigger TV audience in L.A.

This is not an April Fools prank, though after six years it’s fair if that’s the first reaction from Dodgers fans: AT&T and DirecTV have finally reached an agreement with SportsNet LA to show Dodgers games in the L.A. area.

The rub, of course, is that there’s no baseball to watch right now with MLB shut down because of coronavirus. But when it’s back, more fans in L.A. (plus Las Vegas and Hawaii) will be able to watch Dodgers games because of the deal, which was in a six-year stalemate since the launch of SportsNet LA — intended to an all-Dodgers, all-the-time network of which the team owns a percentage.

The two sides announced the deal Wednesday, which will give AT&T, DirecTV, U-Verse and AT&T TV Now customers access to Dodgers games.

The Dodgers' SportsNet LA cable network will finally be available on DirecTV and AT&T. (Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for SportsNet LA)
The Dodgers' SportsNet LA cable network will finally be available on DirecTV and AT&T. (Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for SportsNet LA)

What went wrong with SportsNet LA?

In the era of MLB teams getting mega TV cable deals, SportsNet LA was supposed to the Disneyland of regional sports networks. The channel was intended to be the Dodgers’ version of the Yankees’ YES Network — with a contract that even baseball players would envy.

The network launched in 2014 with the Dodgers signing a 25-year deal worth $8.35 billion dollars with Charter Communications to be partners in the network. Yep, that’s billion with a B. SportsNet LA has been functioning since then, but with one problem — most cable providers in the L.A. area didn’t carry the network.

Only Spectrum, which is owned by Charter Communications, carried the station. So it didn’t even reach half of the households in Southern California. The impasse was because of, you guessed it, money. Other cable carriers said it was too expensive.

The deal with AT&T and DirecTV will now give SportsNet LA and Dodgers baseball a much wider reach in Southern Calfornia. There are still other carriers in the L.A. area that don’t have the station, but this move could accelerate more deals.

Now we just need baseball to start up again.

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