JUDGE GIVES DODGERS OK TO SELL TV RIGHTS

A Delaware bankruptcy judge has given the Dodgers the green light to package their television rights along with the team itself in a quick sale — a decision that has angered Fox Sports, whose rights to air Dodgers’ games on its Prime Ticket channel ends after next season. Fox, which said it will appeal the decision by Judge Kevin Gross, had argued that it would be irreparably harmed if the team is allowed to begin negotiating with another broadcast outlet before the expiration of the current contract. Fox is particularly worried about the possibility that the Dodgers may open talks with Time Warner Cable, which has indicated that it would like to add Dodger games to its regional sports network. As today’s (Friday) Los Angeles Times points out, when the original contract was written in 2004, it barred the Dodgers from partnering with Time Warner, at the time the corporate parent of Time Warner Cable. But in 2009, the cable company was spun off and is now an independent operation that is anxious to do a deal with the Dodgers. In an interview with the Times, Fox Sports spokesman Chris Bellitti said the company will seek to block any such arrangement. “The contract, which was written in 2004, states the Dodgers are restricted in partnering with ‘Time Warner’ in an RSN [regional sports network] and both sides have always, up to today, acted consistently with the understanding of the meaning that Time Warner Cable is restricted from making a media rights deal with the Dodgers,” Bellitti said.