On Monday, Charter Communications announced a broad-reaching plan to fundamentally change how it distributes regional sports networks, both on its cable system, as well as the program guides on competing pay TV operators.
Buried in the third paragraph of the press release was this seemingly important nugget: "Additionally, Charter plans to launch a direct-to-consumer (DTC) alternative for its own Regional Sports Networks (RSNs), Spectrum SportsNet and Spectrum SportsNet LA, which will be made available to all affiliate subscribers for free."
When will these DTC alternatives be available? And how much will they cost?
A Charter press rep told Next TV via email Wednesday morning that no details are yet available.
However, veteran sports media executive/consultant Patrick Crakes told us via text that the DTC versions of the Charter RSNs should run at least $20 a month and could approach $30.
He expects Spectrum SportsNet, exclusive local TV home to the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers since 2012, to launch a DTC alternative in time for the start of the 2023-24 NBA season in late October.
Based on the uptake of myriad other local sports cable channels that have launched DTC streaming alternatives, Crakes said he expects "little interest at the unbundled price as has been the case with RSN DTC so for."
Indeed, Southern California sports fans might end up asking, where was this alternative a decade ago?
Spectrum SportsNet was launched by the erstwhile Time Warner Cable based on a 20-year, $1.5 billion local TV rights deal with the Lakers.
Spectrum SportsNet LA launched two years later, foundationed on a 25-year, $8.35 billion agreement with Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers.
From the beginning, both RSNs faced restricted distribution, with DirecTV, the biggest pay TV operator across the Southern California region, not picking up the channel until 2020 -- and only after an epic carriage impasse that ended up getting attention from the U.S. Justice Department.
These days, the two Spectrum SportsNet channels are available across DirecTV's platforms, including DirecTV Stream, on tier 2-level "Choice" packages and above.
Local sports fans will spend excess of $100 a month for these packages. But it seems unlikely that if they're avid Lakers or Dodgers fans they'll be willing to give up the rest of the DirecTV bundle's ample sports offerings.
