L.A. Superior Court Judge Amy Hogue dismissed a class-action lawsuit that was filed against Time Warner Cable, Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Lakers.
The suit was filed in response to customers needing to pay a premium for Lakers, and soon-to-be Dodgers, content. According to the Hollywood Reporter, that fee is $4-$5 a month.
The complaint stated that customers don’t have the option to unsubscribe from the content even if they aren’t interested.
Judge Hogue cited federal law that prohibits states from exercising their own laws that may interfere with what Congress has set forth.
In October of 2012, the Lakers and Time Warner reached a 20-year agreement worth an approximate $3 billion for exclusive television rights. Time Warner then set its sights on the Dodgers, who they have inked to a 25-year contract worth an estimated $8.5 billion.
Right now, Time Warner Cable is working hard to strike agreements with all other providers for SportsNetLA, much like they did with TWC SportsNet. So, SportsNetLA is an entity owned by the Dodgers themselves, as the Dodgers have hired Time Warner Cable to perform a variety of services for the network, including programming, non-game production and distribution.
At varying degrees of speed, Time Warner came to terms with other carriers to have access to the Lakers’ Time Warner Cable SportsNet.
Time Warner has yet to agree with other distributors that will grant them right to carry the Dodgers’ SportsNet LA network.
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