Los Angeles baseball is at the center of the latest showdown between pay-TV distributors and sports networks.
This time the fight is over the new Dodgers-owned cable channel, SportsNet LA. The network wants pay-TV distributors to fork over the highest-ever carriage fee for a regional sports channel of its kind, with a monthly charge per subscriber beginning at more than $4 and likely escalating to over $5 in coming years, according to people familiar with the situation. 

SportsNet LA is available on cable operator Time Warner Cable Inc., TWC -0.67% which was involved in the formation of the network through an $8.3 billion media-rights deal. No other major pay-TV distributor serving the region has agreed to carry it.
Armed with information about their customers' viewing habits, other distributors say the data doesn't support paying such a high price for a channel that an overwhelming majority of their subscribers won't watch regularly. They say they aren't worried about backlash from customers if the channel isn't available, and they show no signs of blinking as the Dodgers prepare to open the season in Australia on March 22.
According to research by pay-TV companies, fans tend to check in on their local baseball teams in the weeks following Opening Day, but then don't become intensely interested again until midsummer, and then only if the team is in contention.
"Consumers have come to understand the tactics of television networks and sports teams to try to extract more out of their wallet for the same team and games they got yesterday for a lot less," said Dan York, chief content officer for satellite-TV provider DirecTV Inc.,DTV -0.58% which wants customers to be able to choose whether to subscribe to the channel. Under that "a la carte" model, DirecTV DTV -0.58% would pay only a wholesale carriage fee for the customers that sign up.
Stan Kasten, chief executive of the Dodgers, which controls the channel, said the star-studded team that led Major League Baseball in attendance last season deserves to have its network fully distributed on the expanded basic channel lineups that include most other regional sports networks.
Mr. Kasten said in an interview Wednesday the Dodgers would invest the proceeds prudently. "We put it into the team and into the stadium," he said.
David Rone, president of Time Warner Cable Sports, News and Local Programming, accused DirecTV of hypocrisy for not wanting to offer SportsNet LA in the same manner it offers regional sports networks in which it owns a stake in Seattle, Denver and Pittsburgh.
Mr. York said the high price that SportsNet LA is demanding makes the situation different. "It's only fair to give all consumers the choice," he said.
By comparison, it costs pay-TV providers $3.20 per subscriber to carry the YES Network, which televises Yankees games, according to researcher firm SNL Kagan.
Recent fights over carriage of regional sports networks have emboldened pay-television distributors. DirecTV has passed on carrying the Pac-12 Network, which features the sports of the dominant college conference in the Western U.S. Mr. York said subscriber losses have been "de minimus."
DirecTV, as well as AT&T and other pay-TV providers, also have passed on carrying a new sports channel in Houston. There, too, subscriber outcry and action has been minimal, pay-TV executives say.
The best test-case for the Dodgers network may be Dish's decision not to carry Time Warner Cable Sportsnet, the exclusive television home of the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers are arguably the city's most heralded team, despite wallowing at the bottom of the standings this season. According to SNL Kagan, Dish has gained about 1,300 subscribers during the period it hasn't carried the Lakers network.
Aside from Time Warner Cable, the Dodgers network for now will be available only on Bright House Networks, a cable operator with just 5,000 customers in the Los Angeles market. Bright House's programming deals are generally negotiated by Time Warner Cable under a long-standing agreement. A person familiar with the situation said Bright House has a choice of which channels to take.
There are about 4.84 million pay-TV customers in the greater Los Angeles market, according to SNL Kagan. Time Warner Cable is the largest pay-TV provider in the market, with about 32% of the subscribers.
DirecTV has about 27% of the market, while Dish Network Corp. has nearly 13%. Seven other providers control the remaining 28%.
Until this year, nearly one-third of Dodgers games were available on over-the-air broadcaster KCAL. Regional sports network Prime Ticket televised about 100 games each season.
Then last year came a record $8.3 billion deal allowing the newly created SportsNet LA to carry at least 150 games each season for the next 25 years. The deal was hammered out between Time Warner Cable and American Media Productions LLC, a company created around the new network. Most of the money flows to the team, forcing the backers of the network to charge a hefty carriage fee to be profitable.
Backing sports networks was a shift for Time Warner Cable, which had been a strong voice in the industry against rising sports TV fees. The company's former chief executive, Glenn Britt, has described the change as a hedge against those increasing fees. Cable giant Comcast Corp. CMCSA -0.47% —which has a pending $45 billion deal to acquire Time Warner Cable—is an investor in 12 regional sports networks.