January 28th, 2013 at 9:53 am 
by Ron Cervenka There is an angry Fox loose in L.A. today – not the animal but the television network.
It has been confirmed that Time Warner Cable (TWC) has won the television rights to carry the Dodgers new television channel, having outbid Fox Sports (News Corps) who have held the broadcasting rights for the Dodgers for more than a decade.
Time Warner Cable now holds the TV rights for both the Lakers and the Dodgers. Who’s next? (Image courtesy of TWC)
Guggenheim Baseball Management Group, which owns the Dodgers, will control the new “SportsNet LA” channel, thus making the Dodgers the latest in a series of sports franchises to own all or part of their own regional sports network.
The move assures the Dodgers of ongoing television profits, this in addition to the extremely lucrative revenue from TWC that is reportedly worth between $7 and $8 billion dollars over the next 25 years.
The existing contract with Fox will expire at the conclusion of the Dodgers 2013 season, which brings up the burning question – will an obviously angry Fox become a lame duck? By this I mean will they basically “phone it in” and provide substandard service to the Dodgers and, more importantly, to the millions of viewers who will be watching Dodger games on Fox’s PrimeTicket throughout the 2013 season?
I wish to commend and thank Fox/PrimeTicket for many years of great service.
(Image courtesy of Fox Sports)
The very thought of Fox sabotaging their Dodger broadcasts defies all common sense and logic and would be nothing short of unprofessional (and undoubtedly would subject them to liability). Having befriended several of the Fox/PrimeTicket cameramen and other Fox employees this past season, I simply cannot fathom the idea that Fox would ever stoop to anything so low. But with that being said, you can be certain that those at a much higher pay grade at Fox are extremely upset and hurt over this entire thing.
…and you know what they say about a wounded animal.
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I have no idea what will happen. I am just happy that in another season Fox will be gone from all things Dodgers. I do suspect that they will not act as a saboteur. They no doubt will be after other such deals with other franchises at some point in the future. I expect they don’t want such a blemish on their record and sabotage their own efforts. Stupidity with the Dodgers was one thing, but deliberately providing substandard service would be very damaging. It is all about the money and for Fox there will be another day. However, it most likely won’t be with the Dodgers during my time.
Do you suppose TimeWarner will get rid of Frick and Frack when they take over?
This is one of those Good News / Bad News things:
The Good News is that Vin Scully, Jaime Jarrín, Pepe Yñiguez, Fernando Valenzuela, Rick Monday and Charlie Steiner are all employed by the Dodgers, not Fox.
The Bad News is that so are “Frick and Frack.”
However, Eric Karros, Patrick O’Neal, Kevin Kennedy and Jim Watson (my favorite) are employed by Fox.
But what may be of concern is that AM 570 DodgerTalk Radio hosts Kevin Kennedy and David Vassegh are employed by the radio station and AM 570 just so happens to be “Fox Sports LA”, so I’m thinking that their jobs might be at risk. To be honest, whatever radio station becomes the Dodgers flagship station (and it may still be AM 570) would be foolish not to hire Kevin and David, who do an excellent job with DodgerTalk.
Stupid question….Who the hell is Frick and Frack??
I’ll defer to ebbetsfld (or TrueBlue Idaho, or Gary Smith, etc. etc.) on that one.
Hint: Blue Evan loves them.
Mike; “Frick and Frack” is a reference to Eric Collins and Steve Lyons. They’re the Dodgers annoucing pair who do the games outside of Vinny’s road territory. Vinny’s getting up in the age, so he chooses to only do games on the West Coast, Arizona and sometimes even to Coors Field.
Frick and Frack are annoying to listen to; I don’t care what Blue Evan thinks… 😉
…although, if it weren’t for Frick, Frack would be much more enjoyable to listen to. Lyons is a good color man, but he invariably plays into Collins’ incessant blather and hyperbole… and rarely is Collins schtick ever appropriate for the given moment. Example; Frick constantly yells as if he’s calling the greatest play in the history of baseball… only to have the fly ball caught in the outfield, well before the warning track.
In my opinion, Steve Lyons is very knowledgeable of the game and would be an asset to a quality announcer for the Dodgers. He used to be a National color man for FOX’s game of the week until he made a “politically incorrect” joke. Now if he could just take back that “wallet” comment he made to Lou Piniella on National TV…
I could not have said it better Kevin !!
Ditto!
Thank you very much sir. Now I feel like I’m part of the inner circle!! 🙂
Again, thread comments revert to Eric Collins attacks. You guys need to get a life. Keep it up guys, you’ll end up with Darren Sutton 😛
Okay, Evan…. I’ll bite. BTW, it’s “Daron.”
Daron Sutton would be a HUGE upgrade to Eric Collins! Sutton has more knowledge of professional baseball in his little finger than Collins will ever hope to aquire in his lifetime! AND… he knows the difference between an airplane and a glider.
Classic call:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZN_1q3ucds
Well what is the difference between a plane and a glider, Kevin?
One sails high and away, the other falls short of the plate.
Hey Kevin – Why is there air?
Although I’m very happy about this news, since I am a subscriber of TWC, I pretty well know this will not affect me since the new SportsLA channel is only for the West Coast and Hawaii.
I don’t think there will be any difference in my Dodger Viewing.