Spectrum SportsNet (Los Angeles)

Sunday media: If the Lakers are tanking, the Spectrum SportsNet ...

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Spectrum SportsNet and Spectrum Deportes, formerly Time Warner Cable SportsNet and Time Warner Cable Deportes, (abbreviated as TWC SportsNet and TWC Deportes) are American regional sports cable and satellite television networks that are owned by Charter Communications through its acquisition of Time Warner Cable in May 2016, with the Los Angeles Lakers maintaining editorial control over the content, including team-assigned reporters and anchors, as well as team-related programming. The networks are based near the Lakers' team headquarters in the Los Angeles suburb of El Segundo, California.

Spectrum SportsNet - which broadcasts in English - and Spectrum Deportes - which is the first U.S. regional sports network with a 24-hour Spanish feed - launched at 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time on October 1, 2012. Spectrum SportsNet and Spectrum Deportes serve the Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan areas, the Coachella Valley, the Central Coast of California, Las Vegas, and Hawaii.

Lakers game broadcasts serve as the centerpiece of both networks. Spectrum SportsNet and Spectrum Deportes have been the exclusive home of all Lakers games that are not televised nationally since the 2012-13 NBA season. Other sports events aired on the networks include Los Angeles Galaxy soccer and Los Angeles Sparks basketball games.

Game broadcasts are carried in high definition in both English and Spanish. A Korean language audio track is also provided via the second audio program function available on most television sets and cable receiver boxes; as a result, Spectrum SportsNet holds the distinction of being the first English-language television network to offer Asian-language play-by-play audio of sporting events.

Video Spectrum SportsNet (Los Angeles)

Background

On February 14, 2011, the Lakers and Time Warner Cable signed a $3 billion, 20-year cable television agreement which took effect in the fall of 2012. The networks will televise every Laker game not designated for an exclusive broadcast by either ABC, ESPN or TNT. The new venture ended long-standing broadcast partnerships with KCAL-TV (channel 9), which (dating back to its days as KHJ-TV) had televised the Lakers' road games since the 1977-78 season; and with Fox Sports West, which in all of its incarnations had broadcast the team's home games since the 1985-86 season. The Lakers joined a growing list of NBA franchises that have abandoned over-the-air local telecasts in favor of their games being available exclusively on cable and satellite. Besides live games, the networks also feature a team news magazine program, classic games, profiles of Laker players past and present, and exclusive video-on-demand content that is available both online and on television.

As part of the agreement with Time Warner, the team stated that it would work with the cable provider to ensure that other providers within the Lakers' designated broadcast territory (parts of southern California, including the San Diego, Palm Springs and Santa Barbara markets, as well as southern Nevada and Hawaii) would have access to the two networks. As of 2016, the only television providers that does not carry either channel is satellite provider Dish Network, cable company Comcast serving northern Santa Barbara County, and IPTV's CenturyLink Prism TV serving Las Vegas Valley. Time Warner offers the channel for $3.95 a subscriber, comparable to other regional sports networks, but other providers were concerned that this cost could increase substantially should the Los Angeles Dodgers begin carrying their games on Time Warner Cable SportsNet; while Time Warner Cable did later reach a 25-year agreement with the Dodgers, the provider created a separate channel, SportsNet LA, to carry that team's games and other Dodgers-related programming.

Los Angeles Galaxy

On November 18, 2011, Time Warner Cable Sports announced a broadcast rights agreement with the Los Angeles Galaxy Major League Soccer club, a ten-year deal starting with the 2012 season in which the team will be paid $55 million during the contractual period. The networks will televise all Galaxy matches that are not televised on a national network, and will also broadcast matches involving non-MLS opponents. Similar to the agreement with the Lakers, the Galaxy also has supplementary programming featured on the networks, including a weekly team magazine, and possible classic matches.

Prior to the networks' launch, Anaheim-based independent station KDOC-TV (channel 56) televised 18 Galaxy matches for the 2012 MLS season, with production handled by Time Warner Cable SportsNet. The new networks then televised the remainder of the Galaxy's schedule beginning in October 2012. (KDOC also televised select matches featuring the Galaxy's former stadium-mate and crosstown rival, Chivas USA, until that team was folded after the 2014 season.) Much like the Lakers, the Galaxy formerly maintained a long-standing broadcast agreement with Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket.

Los Angeles Sparks

On March 14, 2012, it was announced that the channel had signed a multi-year deal with the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks franchise. Although the deal was reported as being non-exclusive, all of the televised games during the 2013 season aired on TWC SportsNet, except for those that were nationally broadcast on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 (as with the Galaxy, KDOC aired the 2012 schedule in preparation for the launch of the new channels).

Starting in 2018 WNBA Season, because of the new WNBA Team, the Las Vegas Aces (formerly known as the Stars) who relocated from San Antonio, hold territorial rights for all of Southern Nevada, Los Angeles Sparks games are blacked out in the Las Vegas Valley on Spectrum SportsNet regardless of the cable or satellite provider, requiring a subscription to the WNBA League Pass out-of-market sports package to view those telecasts. All other sports programming, with the exception of Sparks basketball games carried on Spectrum SportsNet, is available in Southern Nevada.

Los Angeles Dodgers

On January 23, 2013, Time Warner Cable and the Los Angeles Dodgers reached a deal to create a new channel called SportsNet LA, which would become the exclusive local carrier of the Major League Baseball franchise's games starting with the 2014 season. Time Warner Cable outbid Fox Sports Net for the contract, which runs for 25 years through 2039 and is estimated to be worth $8.35 billion. At the time of the announcement, the team was supposed to be considering offering a package of games to be aired over Fox Television Stations' two Los Angeles outlets, Fox owned-and-operated station KTTV (channel 11) and MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station KCOP-TV.

Other sports programming rights

Spectrum SportsNet also airs live broadcasts of the football and boys' basketball championship games of the California Interscholastic Federation and Los Angeles City Section, the CIF state championship games in boys' and girls' basketball, and the regional and state bowl games in football. It also carries select games of the Lakers-owned NBA G League team, the South Bay Lakers. Spectrum Deportes also airs Pro Footvolley Tour.

For the 2012-13 athletic season, Spectrum SportsNet aired select football and men's basketball games from the Mountain West Conference that were not televised on a national basis; one or both of the teams playing in nearly all of the telecasts that the network aired that season involved the San Diego State Aztecs and the University of Nevada Las Vegas Rebels, both universities are in the network's primary service area. It lost the rights to Mountain West games beginning with the 2013-14 season due to new broadcast agreements signed by the conference; some SDSU games that are not nationally televised are now carried on Fox Sports San Diego, while some UNLV games are seen on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain.

Since the 2012-13 athletic season, Spectrum SportsNet aired select men's basketball games from the West Coast Conference that were not televised on a national basis. Three universities (Loyola Marymount Lions, Pepperdine Waves, and San Diego Toreros) are in the network's primary service area.

Spectrum SportsNet has also aired the NBC program Poker After Dark and some action sports events, while airs a weekly lucha libre card taped in Mexico City. For the 2014 MLS season, Spectrum Deportes agreed to carry Chivas USA matches in Spanish that are not televised on a national network in their final season before the team disbands.

Maps Spectrum SportsNet (Los Angeles)

Announcers