Time Warner

Cox Cable, DirecTV and Dish Network are still trying to reach agreements to carry Time Warner Cable's new sports channel SportsNet in time for the outlet's first Lakers telecast Wednesday night. Time Warner Cable's SportsNet, which launched Oct. 1, is the new home for the Lakers and will be the only place for fans to see 57 of the team's 82 regular-season games. Other games will be available on national outlets, including Tuesday night's Lakers season opener against Dallas, which was on TNT. Last week, Time Warner Cable struck distribution deals for SportsNet and the Spanish-language service Deportes with Charter Communications, AT&T U-Verse and Verizon Fios.

Dwight Howard and Steve Nash are not the only additions to the Lakers this season. The storied franchise also has a new television partner: Time Warner Cable. And just as new players sometimes have trouble fitting in with the established stars, Time Warner Cable is learning that launching a sports channel is not as easy as an uncontested layup. Time Warner Cable struck deals with Charter Communications and Verizon Fios on Friday, and on Saturday added AT&T U-Verse and its 450,000 subscribers.

AT&T U-Verse customers won't have to worry about missing any Laker games this season. Time Warner Cable has struck a distribution deal for its new regional sports networks SportsNet and Deportes with AT&T U-Verse, which has about 450,000 subscribers in Southern California. INTERACTIVE: All things Lakers The agreement is the third distribution deal Time Warner Cable has struck in two days. On Friday it reached agreements with Charter Communcations and Verizon Fios.

Time Warner Cable SportsNet has added Kurt Rambis to the broadcast crew for select Lakers games this season. Rambis has a rich history with the organization, as a player during the Showtime era, assistant coach and even head coach (albeit briefly). The Lakers' first official broadcast, not including preseason, will be on Oct. 30 when the Lakers visit the Portland Trail Blazers. Rambis will join "#LakeShow," in studio with Chris McGee, Andy Adler, James Worthy and Dave Miller.

Time Warner Cable's new Lakers channels are having trouble taking it to the hoop. On Wednesday, Cox Cable and satellite broadcaster DirecTV went public with complaints about Time Warner Cable's lack of flexibility in negotiating deals for SportsNet and the Spanish-language Deportes, the new television outlets for the Lakers. Launched Oct. 1, Time Warner Cable has yet to strike deals with any other distributors for the channels, which will carry the majority of Lakers games starting October 31. That means millions of Lakers fans could miss lots of games if contracts are not signed soon.

The first regular season Los Angeles Lakers game scheduled to air on Time Warner Cable's new SportsNet channel is just a week away and the cable company still does not have any distribution deals with other pay-TV providers in the region. If Time Warner Cable doesn't get deals done soon, millions of Lakers fans will be missing a lot of basketball. On Wednesday, Cox Cable, which has 1.2 million subscribers in Southern California, primarily in Orange County and San Diego, said its offer to carry SportsNet and Time Warner Cable's Spanish-language sports channel Deportes on a specialty tier along with other sports channels was rebuffed.

Many Southern California sports bars are bracing for a frightening scene Halloween night: No Lakers on their television sets. The Lakers deliver a jolt of added business for sports bars and restaurants with multiple TVs tuned to their games. But unless a Time Warner Cable contract dispute is soon resolved, the Lakers won't be available to many of them, starting with the Lakers' second game of the season Oct. 31. "We're definitely not happy about it," said Paola Casanova, general manager of Lucky Baldwins Pub in Pasadena.

Hardly a day goes by without speculation that former NBCUniversal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker is the leading candidate to succeed Jim Walton as president of Time Warner's CNN Worldwide when he resigns at year end. The case for Zucker is easy to make. Before he became a media bigwig, he was a top news executive who knew how to balance good journalism with strong ratings. His run as executive producer of NBC's morning program "Today" was incredibly successful and his news experience isn't limited to the AM hours.

After the coffee. Before choosing between the debate and the baseball playoffs. The Skinny: I have got to stop turning these football games off at halftime. That Broncos comeback would have been fun to watch. Tuesday's headlines include a curtain-raiser on News Corp.'s annual meeting, India-based Reliance Media's thoughts on outsourcing and an update on the Cablevision - Dish Network trial. Daily Dose: Sports personality Dan Patrick, host of his popular radio and TV morning talk show , is getting a new home.

The Lakers have shut the eyes and ears of millions of viewers (six in my household) with their new TV contract with Time Warner Cable. Millions of those blindsided Lakers fans will be watching the surging Clippers instead on their cable and satellite networks. Out of sight and out of mind. Ken Johnson Pinon Hills :: Want to congratulate the L.A. Times for having the best fiction writers in the business. They write about UCLA's loss to Cal and they write about the Lakers' preseason games, but we know they're making it all up. Along with 19 million other subscribers to DirecTV, I know if there were games being played, we would be viewing them on the sports-oriented satellite provider, but since we're not....