KTLA to air 10 Dodger games this season

Remember the good ol’ days when you could turn on your television and flip to Fox Sports West or Prime Ticket – or even occasionally KCAL 9 – and watch every Dodger game during the regular season; this before the advent of what was billed as the greatest (and certainly most expensive) regional sports network in broadcasting history through Time Warner Cable’s (and now Spectrum’s) SportsNetLA? You know, the one that cost Time Warner $8.35 billion (with a “B”) for 25 years and the one where fans were led to believe that every cable and satellite provider in Southern California would carry, so that they could continue to watch every Dodger game?

As we all painfully know, things didn’t exactly work out as they were planned. Since that fateful day on February 25, 2014, 70 percent of LA viewers were not – and still are not – able to watch any Dodgers games, except for those occasional ESPN or Fox Sports nationally television games.

Well guess what? That has now changed … sort of.

On Wednesday, the Dodgers announced that Spectrum’s SportsNetLA will simulcast 10 regular season Dodgers games on Tribune Broadcasting’s KTLA5, one of Southern California’s most popular local television stations.

The first SNLA / KTLA5 simulcast will be on Wednesday, April 5, 2017 beginning at 6:30 pm PT, when the Dodgers host the San Diego Padres. The simulcasts will also cover the April 12 game at Wrigley Field in Chicago against the Cubs, with coverage beginning at 5 pm PT. The final simulcast will occur on Sunday, May 7, 2017 starting at 1 pm PT when the Dodgers again take on the Padres at Petco Park. Additionally, SNLA and KTLA5 will air the live pregame ‘Vin Scully Ring of Honor Ceremony’ in its entirety on Wednesday, May 3 beginning at 6 pm PT from Dodger Stadium.

Here are the 10 games that will be simulcast on SportsNet LA and KTLA5 this season:

  • Wednesday, April 5             6:30 pm                                   vs. San Diego Padres
  • Sunday, April 9                    12:00 pm                                 at Colorado Rockies
  • Wednesday, April 12          5:00 pm                                   at Chicago Cubs
  • Sunday, April 16                 1:00 pm                                   vs. Arizona Diamondbacks
  • Tuesday, April 18                6:30 pm                                   vs. Colorado Rockies
  • Wednesday, April 19         7:00 pm                                   vs. Colorado Rockies
  • Sunday, April 23                 1:00 pm                                   at Arizona Diamondbacks
  • Sunday April 30                  1:00 pm                                   vs. Philadelphia Phillies
  • Wednesday May 3             6:00 pm                                   vs. San Francisco Giants
  • Sunday, May 7                    1:00 pm                                   at San Diego Padres

*Times listed represent when coverage begins on KTLA5 and are Pacific Daylight Time.

The bad news is that, aside from those with Charter’s Spectrum SportsNetLA and aside from these 10 games, other distributors (can you say DirecTV?) are not expected to carry SportsNet LA yet again this season.

But hey, it’s a start, right?

 

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