After weeks of tense negotiations, the cable TV company that owns the right to show most Lakers basketball games has reached a deal that will enable more Southern Californians to see the team play.
Time Warner Cable, which last year bought the rights to most of the team’s home and away games, says the team's Halloween matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers will be shown on Charter cable, AT&T U-Verse, Verizon Fios and Bright House Networks.
But the new deals, announced this weekend, will still not allow everyone in Southern California to watch the storied team.
DirecTV, Dish Network, Comcast (which owns NBC) and Cox still haven’t reached a deal with Time Warner to show the games, which means that their subscribers will have to go without for the time being at least.
Throughout this year’s fall pre-season, the Lakers have only been available to subscribers of Time Warner Cable.
Some games are still available on broadcast television on the ABC network, but those are relatively few compared to the nearly full season that will be shown on cable. Others, including Tuesday's season-opener against the Dallas Mavericks, will be shown nationally on TNT.
To show the games, Time Warner has developed two new networks, Time Warner Cable SportsNet and Time Warner Cable Deportes.
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The networks will show games by the Lakers, Galaxy and Sparks. They will also show news programming about the teams.
But the cable giant has asked other carriers to pay as much as $3.95 per subscriber to carry the games, and some have balked. The company has not released the final terms of the deals that have been struck so far.
Time Warner continues to try to press additional carriers to sign up. On the Lakers web page and In a full-page ad in Sunday's Los Angeles Times, the company is urging consumers to contact their TV providers with requests for the two sports networks.
For those with access, Wednesday's game will begin at 7:30 p.m. It will be held in Portland.
Click here for the Lakers' frequently asked questions list on viewing the games on TV.
