Comcast, Time Warner See Mets Deal

Time Warner (TWX Quote) and Comcast (CMCSA Quote) are playing ball with the New York Mets.

The two cable operators, along with a company formed by the baseball team, announced plans Tuesday to launch a New York City regional sports network in 2006. The new network, yet unnamed, would feature up to 125 regular season games from the Mets, along with other programming yet undisclosed.

The deal spotlights both the economic promise of regional sports programming and the soap-operatic nature of the regional sports business in the New York metropolitan area and elsewhere. It also shows continuing collaboration between the big cable rivals, who as recently as last month were reported to be teaming up for a possible bid on assets of bankrupt Adelphia.

With sports, both local and national, consistently ranking among the most popular programming on cable TV, programmers have regularly sparred with cable TV operators over pricing in recent years. Operators complain that sports channels are charging unconscionably high prices for games, while those rightsholders -- often owned in part by the sports teams themselves -- insist they are charging prices commensurate with their value to cable TV households. ...