Charter Communications, the No. 2 cable TV provider in the U.S., has unveiled a significant revamp of its Spectrum pay-TV subscription offerings.
The new scheme, which will roll out this fall, overhauls the long-problematic situation for regional sports networks, like the company’s own Spectrum SportsNet and SportsNet LA, which air Lakers basketball and Dodgers baseball, respectively.
As the cost of sports rights has risen, pay-TV subscriber rates have fallen, damaging the traditional model of tacking on the price of RSNs to subscribers’ bills.
Blackouts and outages have been the result as carriage disputes have broken out, with SportsNet LA going dark for more than six years on DirecTV until a resolution in 2020. (The two companies disclosed a carriage renewal as part of today’s broader announcement, with a press release calling the carriage pact “consistent with this evolutionary new model.”) In the new structure, Spectrum TV Select will relaunch as two new services in parts of Charter’s footprint: Spectrum Select Plus, which will include RSNs and other sports programming, and Spectrum Select Signature.
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