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Los Angeles Dodgers News: Team makes broadcast deal with DIRECTV

By Jamaal Artis

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 26: Dodger Stadium is viewed on what was supposed to be Major League Baseball's opening day, now postponed due to the coronavirus, on March 26, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles Dodgers were slated to play against the San Francisco Giants at the stadium today. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is not optimistic that the league will play a full 162 game regular season due to the spread of COVID-19. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 26: Dodger Stadium is viewed on what was supposed to be Major League Baseball's opening day, now postponed due to the coronavirus, on March 26, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles Dodgers were slated to play against the San Francisco Giants at the stadium today. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is not optimistic that the league will play a full 162 game regular season due to the spread of COVID-19. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) /
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More fans can finally watch the Los Angeles Dodgers as after seven long years, the Dodgers have come to an agreement with DIRECTV

Los Angeles Dodgers fans, your long nightmare is over!!! No, not that one Major League Baseball (MLB) is still closed for business due to the COVID-19 virus causing a global pandemic.

If and when it comes back, though, Dodgers fans in Southern California will be able to watch their team again.

On Wednesday morning ESPN Reporter Ramon Shelburne broke the news on Twitter that the Dodgers had made a deal with DIRECTV to carry the Dodgers station Sportsnet LA.

The deal was confirmed by the network announcing that fans could watch the channel on AT&T DIRECTV, U-Verse, AT&TV, and AT&T TV Now in Southern California, Lad Vegas, and Hawaii.

This means that theoretically, every Dodgers fan in those areas can now watch live games and Dodgers coverage for the first time in seven years since the channel was created giving the Dodgers a lucrative windfall to the tune of eight billion dollars.

The news is so big Shelburne had to preface that her tweet was not an April Fool’s Joke, the blackout of a large portion of Dodgers fans being a large black-eye for the teams image the last seven years.

The announcement also prefaced that live games would not be available until MLB returns, a cruel irony for fans who have been denied being able to watch the Dodgers and are still left waiting. Cord-cutters will likely still be blacked out, Sportsnet LA still can’t be viewed over any of the many streaming sites.

When SportsnetLA was first created for the Time-Warner Network in 2014, fans assumed deals would be made for the channel to be carried across different platforms in Southern California. In its initial launch, only 30 percent of Southern California could view the channel, Time-Warner and DIRECTV refused to come to terms and so the blackout began.

A deal with Charter Communications in 2015 expanded some coverage but it was still below 50 percent of households in Southern California. The blackout would continue until now. Dodgers fans voiced their displeasure reminding ownership that the team generated great profits while denying fans a chance to view their favorite team.

For many fans the blackout could be circumvented by using some legal and illegal means, the Los Angeles Times even printed an article on the technical aspects of getting around the blackout

For many fans, it meant going to the stadium or missing out on some great individual performances and great teams.

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The legacy of the Los Angeles Dodgers ownership group for better or worse will be the alienated fans that missed many Kershaw starts and Bellinger home runs. Now those same Dodgers fans have something to look forward to when baseball starts again.

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