MIKE ON RADIO: Discussing the Time Warner Cable/Dodgers Mess On KCRW's "Hollywood Breakdown"

On this past Thursday's edition of KCRW's Hollywood Breakdown, Kim Masters and I discuss the Time Warner Cable/Dodgers mess:

As baseball season marches on, big television distributors continue to battle, keeping the Dodgers off the television sets of about 70% of Angelenos. The dispute centers around the Dodgers-owned channel SportsNet LA. Time Warner Cable agreed to distribute the channel for the next 25 years, at the cost of $8.3 billion. But distributors like DirecTV and Dish Network don't want to pay to carry the channel, which would cost about $5 per subscriber. Now, Time Warner Cable is encouraging an arbitrator to step in and come to a solution, but those other distributors are not interested in dealing with a third party.

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MIKE ON RADIO: Talking CBS v. Time Warner Cable, Stallone v. Willis and More on KCRW's The Business

On this week's episode of KCRW's The Business, I join host Kim Masters as we banter about CBS v. Time Warner Cable; the uproar over Hillary Clinton programs planned on NBC and CNN; and Sylvester Stallone's battle with Bruce Willis over "The Expendables 3." Listen below!

Los Angeles Local Emmys: Voters Spread the Love as KNBC, KABC Shine

Local Los Angeles Area TV Academy voters spread the Emmy love around this year. After two consecutive years of winning all three major newscast Emmy Awards, KNBC had to settle for just one this year. The station's "NBC4 at 6PM" won the Emmy for outstanding daytime newscast (11 am to 7 pm), while KTLA won for outstanding morning newscast (between the hours of 4 am and 11 am) and KMEX's 11 pm news won for outstanding evening newscast (between 7 pm and midnight).

At the 65th annual Los Angeles Area Emmys, held Saturday night at the TV Academy headquarters in North Hollywood, KNBC still led all outlets, winning eight local Emmys. KABC was second, with seven Emmys -- an impressive haul, given that the station doesn't enter the competition in any major categories. (KABC staff must enter themselves.) In its first year of eligibility, new regional sports channel Time Warner Cable Sportsnet landed five Emmys, tied with KTLA.

Time Warner Cable's new Spanish-language regional sports channel, Time Warner Cable Deportes, also picked up its first Emmy, as its launch show won for "outstanding live special events-programming."

KABC's David Ono continued his streak in the "outstanding hard news reporting" category, but this year there was a tie: He's sharing the award with KNBC's Ana Garcia and Robbi Peele.

KNBC's wins also included ones for news director (Gayle Galvez), news writer (Daisy Lin), investigative reporting ("Illegal Animal Traffickers") and serious news story/single report ("Frankie's Fight for Freedom").

Among other categories, the Clippers' winning season extended to the Emmys, where Prime Ticket won the live sports coverage award for its Clippers games.

Also, the 20th anniversary of the post-Rodney King verdict riots sparked several Emmy-winning programs: KNBC's "LA Riots: 20 Years Later" won for outstanding news special; KCBS/KCAL's "Eye on Our Community: The LA Riots -- 20 Years Later" won for outstanding arts and culture/history program; and KTLA's "The LA Riots: 20 Years Later" won for outstanding crime/social issues Emmy.

And although the fate of KCET's newsmagazine "SoCal Connected" is still up in the air, the program continues to be an Emmy winning machine. The show's awards this year included Emmys for outstanding information segment ("Your Money or Your Life"); outstanding feature segment ("The App Economy") and outstanding informational/public affairs series (more than 50% studio-based). "SoCal Connected" executive producer Bret Marcus, who was laid off in a brutal round of station cuts this past April, won Emmys for those wins, as well as one for "Your Turn to Care," hosted by Holly Robinson-Peete, which won for outstanding informational/public affairs series (more than 50% remote).

L.A. Emmy Nominations: KNBC Leads the Pack, But Time Warner SportsNet Impresses

The Lakers couldn't survive the playoffs, but Time Warner Cable's new local sports channels -- which now carry the team -- are already on their way to Emmy gold.

In their first year of eligibility, Time Warner Cable SportsNet and Time Warner Cable Deportes earned a combined 15 nominations (8 for the English network, 7 for the Spanish channel) in the 65th Los Angeles Area Emmy Award competition, besting chief competitors Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket.

What's more, Time Warner Cable SportsNet also has already been awarded two Emmys, for creative technical crafts. Not bad for two channels that just launched in October -- but clearly carrying the Lakers makes a difference, even in an off year like this one.

The Emmy nominations were less impressive for Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket, which earned a combined 12 nods (5 for Prime Ticket, 4 for both and 3 for Fox Sports West) -- a huge dip from the 22 they picked up last year..

As it seems to do every year, KNBC/4 once again led the pack, with 18 nominations, followed by Univision's KMEX/34 (15), Tribune's KTLA/5 (13), KABC/7 (12), public TV indie KCET (12) and KCBS/2 (9). (The combined KCBS/KCAL duopoly earned 17).

Several of KCET's nominations were for "SoCal Connected," a show that remains in limbo at the station. Somehow the show, for reasons that will need to be explained to me, was nominated in both the "INFORMATIONAL/PUBLIC AFFAIRS SERIES (MORE THAN 50% REMOTE)" and the "INFORMATIONAL/PUBLIC AFFAIRS SERIES (MORE THAN 50% STUDIO BASED)" categories. So which is it, remote-based or studio-based??

The L.A. riots remain a hot topic. KCBS/KCAL's "Eye On Our Community: The L.A. Riots--20 Years Later" was nominated in the "ARTS AND CULTURE/HISTORY" category, while KNBC's "LA Riots: 20 Years Later" was nominated in the "NEWS SPECIAL" competition.

Interestingly, despite Time Warner Cable SportsNet's overall haul, its live Lakers coverage didn't get a nom. In the "LIVE SPORTS COVERAGE" category, Prime Ticket's Clippers basketball coverage will face off with sister Fox Sports West's Kings hockey coverage.

In another bit of an upset, KTLA's Rose Parade coverage, a frequent winner in the "LIVE SPECIAL EVENTS -- PROGRAMMING" category, wasn't nominated there this year. KMEX's "Roses Parade 2012" was, however. And it's going up against another Spanish-language special: Time Warner Cable Deportes' "Launch Show."

Speaking of head-to-head bouts, in the "LIVE SPECIAL EVENTS-NEWS" category, KTLA's coverage of the Endeavour Space Shuttle arrival will face off with KTTV/11's coverage of the same thing. And in the "LIVE COVERAGE OF AN UNSCHEDULED NEWS EVENT" category, KTLA's coverage of the Newtown, Conn., shooting will go up against KTTV/KCOP's coverage of the same event.

A few more categories:

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING - NEWS
BEHIND THE GATES OF THE GUARD (KNBC)
CALTRANS AND THE GOVERNOR (KCBS)
CALTRANS DRINKING ON THE JOB (KCBS)
EL 34 INVESTIGA: FRAUDE HIPOTECARIO (KMEX)
ILLEGAL ANIMAL TRAFFICKERS (KNBC)

OUTSTANDING SPORTS REPORTING
Michael Eaves (Fox Sports West)
Mario Solis (KNBC)

OUTSTANDING HARD NEWS REPORTING
Ana Garcia, Reporter; Robbi Peele, Producer (KNBC)
David Goldstein, Reporter (KCBS/KCAL)
Joel Grover, Reporter; Chris Henao, Producer (KNBC)
David Ono, Producer, Reporter (KABC)
Antonio R.Valverde, Reporter (KMEX)

OUTSTANDING NEWS FEATURE REPORTING
Pat Harvey, Reporter; Mansan Luc, Producer (KCBS/KCAL)
Dave Malkoff, Reporter (KTLA)
David Ono, Producer, Reporter (KABC)
Norma Roque, Reporter (KMEX)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR - NEWS
Gayle Galvez, Director (KNBC)
Todd Griffithe, Director (KTLA)

OUTSTANDING WRITER - NEWS
Daisy Lin, Writer (KNBC)
Nicolette Medina, Writer (KCBS/KCAL)

Besides the two Time Warner Cable SportsNet awards, KNBC also picked up an Emmy in the "SPORTS SERIES-NEWS" category, for "The London Olympics: SoCal Shines at Summer Games."

As usual, any one who entered for the best newscast categories were nominated. And as usual, KABC refused to enter itself in any of the categories (leaving staffers to submit themselves).

This year's Governors Award will go to Univision's "comprehensive, multi-platform" education initiative "Educate, Es El Momento."

All told, 136 nominations were made in 43 categories. The 65th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards winners will be announced on Saturday, August 3, 2013, at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood.

PREVIOUSLY:

L.A. 2012 Emmy Nominations: Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket and KNBC Lead the Pack (July 2012)

LA Local Emmys: KNBC Extends Its Streak at the Top (August 2012)

DirecTV Smells Blood in the Time Warner Cable Waters

DirecTV is hoping to steal away a few Time Warner Cable subscribers still pissed off about last month's Manny Ramirez snafu.

You may remember, Time Warner Cable took some heat after it accidentally cut into Prime Ticket's coverage of the Dodgers -- missing a dramatic home run by Ramirez.

Now, DirecTV is running spots on the radio reminding Time Warner Cable subscribers of the goof -- and suggesting they try DirecTV, which wasn't impacted by the accidental pre-emption, instead.

I subscribe to DirecTV -- and although I'm mostly pleased with the service, I'm surprised that cable operators like Time Warner never attempt to combat satellite's major West Coast weakness. DirecTV and Dish offer mostly East Coast feeds -- which means primetime series air too early out here, and many channels telecast infomercials by 11 p.m. PT (which is 2 a.m. ET), making for frustrating late-night channel surfing.