A new era in Major League Baseball television distribution began a few years ago, and there are still growing pains. Local market distribution of television rights (like the YES Network for the New York Yankees or NESN for the Boston Red Sox) can pour millions, if not billions of dollars into team owners pockets for payroll, facilities, or profit. Of course, it is subscribers of cable and satellite TV that ultimately pay the bill. So what happens if they are not willing to pay? Ask Los Angeles Dodgers fans in the Los Angeles viewing area.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have been to the playoffs two straight seasons and are favorite to make it a third. And beginning in 2014, Time Warner Cable (TWC) and the franchise entered a $8+B (yes billion) deal to distribute Dodgers games on a newly created SportsNet Los Angeles (SNLA) for 25 years (via Orange County Register, OCR). The problem is, TWC only has about 30% of the market in LA, and has yet to reach agreement with other content distributors, namely Comcast, DirectTV, and UVerse. Even games nationally televised are blacked out for the local network.

The sticking point is, of course, money. The OCR reports that the asking price for TWC is upwards of $5 per subscriber. With burgeoning cable and satellite bills and a more discriminating consumer with more viewing options than ever, it is no wonder that there is pushback.

The 2014 Dodgers season came and went with no movement. Recently, rumors of a merger between TWC and Comcast seemed to be the linchpin catalyst to break the stalemate. A merger would mean that, in addition to Comcast, other distributors like DirectTV might be pressured to carry SNLA or face loss of subscriptions. News came this week (via OCR) that the merger is nowhere near as complete as hoped. And the sad saga continues.

More than half of Dodgers fans in the LA metro area have been without local TV coverage since 2013. The Houston Astros (and Houston Rockets) had similarly limited distribution on their own network in 2013 and 2014. That did not end well, as the newfound Comcast Sportsnet Houston went bankrupt. The dedicated network model just did not work in Houston (it didn't help the Astros lost 106 games or more for three straight seasons). It remains to be seen whether it will work in Los Angeles. Signs are not positive. And in the meantime, the fans are the pawns in the game of chess.