DirecTV is starting to put its money where its sports programming isn’t — in its customers’ hands.
The satellite pay-TV service, in a stand-off in Los Angeles with Time Warner Cable over rights to Dodgers games, has started making refunds to irked subscribers who can’t tune in the team’s games, sources told The Post.
Time Warner Cable’s SportsNet LA, which owns rights to the games, is demanding distributors pay a $60-a-year fee. Most all LA-area pay-TV providers have balked at the sky-high demand.
So, with DirecTV levying a sports fee but providing no Dodgers’ games, it has in some cases agreed to refund to subscribers a $15 credit.
Other subscribers got credits of $3 and $10.
Some DirecTV customers, meanwhile, have complained their sports surcharge has risen from $2 per month to $3.63 even though they loss Dodgers’ games. DirecTV’s fee has risen because of new access to an LA Lakers channel.
Still, insiders at DirecTV say they’ve had a surprising amount of support from customers who don’t watch sports and don’t want to pay for others to watch it.
“The real question we’re hearing from customers is why won’t Time Warner Cable give them a [customer-by-customer] choice,” a DirecTV spokesperson said.