L.A. Baseball Dispute Prompts P.R. Battle
By LINDA HAUGSTED -- Multichannel News, 8/19/2001 8:00:00 PM
As Fox Sports Net and Time Warner Cable continue talks to resolve their sports-rights fee dispute in Southern California, both parties claim to be winning the public-relations war.
Time Warner suspended carriage of Los Angeles Dodgers and California Angels Major League Baseball telecasts on June 27. The move came in protest of FSN's decision to hike the surcharge it levies to pay for baseball rights.
Last year, the surcharge was 22 cents; this year it is 23 cents.
Time Warner, which has 350,000 Los Angeles-area subscribers, dropped 40 Dodgers telecasts and 20 Angels games.
Both sides have taken their case to the public. FSN has peppered radio broadcasts with ads and bought space in the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Daily News, which reaches the San Fernando Valley suburbs. On-screen crawls during non-baseball programming have also urged consumers to contact the operator and complain about the blackout.
FSN set up a toll-free number to solicit calls from consumers, with a feature that allows angry subscribers to transfer their call directly to Time Warner.
The MSO has countered with a "less aggressive" campaign that uses cross-channel spots to explain its business decision. Area vice president and general manager Eric Brown has also taken advantage of opportunities in the local press, including a chance to make his case in a Daily News sports column.
He emphasized that unlike FSN, Time Warner had live operators take calls from consumers to allow greater interaction and fully explain the issue. Time Warner took the action to hold the line against sports-rights increases, he said.
Though Brown had his say, the sportswriter concluded the column with the local number for DirecTV.
Brown said the FSN campaign has not had a "significant impact" on call volume. He attributed that to the "fairly mild" ratings for the games, which he said garner a 3 to 4 local share. He also said there are many opportunities to view the teams on broadcast television, ESPN, TBS and other Fox stations.
But a vocal core group of fans want to see the home-team contests, especially with the Dodgers in a pennant race.
CLAIMING 'CONVERTS'
Customer-contact personnel have been trained to explain the dispute. Incoming callers are also offered the option of placing a voice-mail message on the subject, or of leaving their name and phone number for a return call from TWC officials. Brown has returned many of the calls himself.
"A lot of people respond to our argument regarding sports costs," said Brown, adding many are shocked that the area general manager returned their call. "Overall, it's been good. In the course of conversations, we've converted quite a few."
The cluster has seen subscriber growth in both June and July, he said, despite dropping sports programming.
"We'd like to have the games back as much as anyone," he added.
FSN also laid claim to consumers' hearts. Its flurry of newspaper ads referenced rolling power blackouts that occurred in California at the beginning of the year with copy that read, "Rolling blackouts? Try permanent blackouts."
Scrolls that ran on-screen during Angels games prior to the blackout asked customers if they expected their cable bill to decrease along with the sports programming.
Fox Sports Networks public-relations director Dennis Johnson said the campaign had generated 30,000 consumer calls to Fox since it started June 27. Some consumers, apparently unsatisfied with the automated option, have tracked down the number to FSN offices and talked to Johnson and affiliate-relations officials.
"Most are pretty sympathetic" to Fox's version of the dispute, he said, especially in light of the fact that other area operators, including AT&T Broadband, Adelphia Communications Corp. and Charter Communications Inc., swallowed the increase.
Both sides noted that while they are still talking about a means to surmount the impasse, there has been no progress.
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