The hits just keep on coming in the Los Angeles sports market for Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC).
Ratings were down nearly 50 percent for the company's L.A. Lakers regional sports network, SportsNet. And despite a huge investment in Dodgers channel SportsNet LA, TWC hasn't been able to reach a carriage deal in the market with any of its competitors.
And now this: Longtime Lakers Spanish-language announcer Fernando Gonzalez is suing the NBA team and Time Warner Cable for $1 million, claiming he was "treated differently and less favorable than his Anglo-American counterparts in terms of wages, hours and conditions of employment."
The suit, which was obtained by Deadline Hollywood and filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, is available here.
Besides the cable company being named as defendants, so are individual executives--Pablo Urquiza, VP of programming for TWC, and Mark Shuken, senior VP and GM for TWC Sports Regional Networks.
As for TWC's other troubles in the market, negotiations for SportsNet LA carriage with DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV)--the other major pay TV service in the L.A. market--have cooled, with no deal appearing nearly two months into the Major League Baseball season.
The Lakers, meanwhile, fell to seventh in the National Basketball Association's player draft lottery. This likely means that a dynamic young talent won't join the team for next season, sparking wins and audience ratings.
For more:
- read this Deadline Hollywood story
- see the lawsuit
Related links:
DirecTV: Time Warner Cable Dodgers deal 'far above any rational view of the market'
Time Warner Cable to launch SportsNet LA with Dodgers
Cali fans rage as end of Clippers-Thunder NBA game cut off