The Charlotte Bobcats' TV ratings are still among the lowest in the NBA, and they're not helped by the limited number of games being shown live in the Raleigh-Durham market.

Charlotte Bobcats games previously available only on SportSouth outside the Triangle will now be shown by Time Warner Cable on digital channel 145 in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Fayetteville. The 16 remaining Bobcats games on the SportSouth schedule can be seen here even if there's a conflicting Carolina Hurricanes game.

Fox Sports Carolinas coverage of the Canes is shown on TWC channel 50 and, when available in high definition, such as Thursday night's home game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, also on channel 272.

SportSouth is not available in the Raleigh area, but "we wanted to make sure that the Bobcats games were available wherever Fox Sports Carolinas is available," Fox Sports spokeswoman Kate Hart said.

The first Bobcats game to be shown in this area will be 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 8, when Charlotte visits Miami.

The Canes next face the Rangers in New York at 7 p.m. Tuesday on TWC channel 50, Dish Network channel 446 and DirecTV channel 645/645-1.

• If you missed Josh Hamilton's appearance on the debut of "Homecoming," the new ESPN2 series hosted by Rick Reilly, be patient. The show, which featured the Texas Rangers star returning to Apex High School, first aired Friday, but it is not expected to be aired again until April 22, the network says, and no DVDs are available yet.
• Sports Illustrated's Luke Winn, writing in this week's issue about how basketball star James Harden wound up at Arizona State, takes a swipe at N.C. State fans, referring to them as "the ungratefuls." Writing in the present tense, Winn describes the familiar coach's arrival at Arizona State: "Herb Sendek heads west in April 2006, fleeing the ungratefuls as North Carolina State who cared less about his success (five straight NCAA tournament trips) than about his singular failure (not wresting Tobacco Road bragging rights from Duke and North Carolina)."
• ESPN2 will televise the World Cup qualifying soccer match between the U.S. men's team and Mexico live (and in high definition) at 7 p.m. Feb. 11 from Columbus, Ohio.
• MLB Network will televise the Caribbean World Series — 12 games — Feb. 2-6 in Mexicali, Mexico.
• Four of the next six Charlotte Bobcats games on Fox Sports Carolinas and SportSouth will be televised in HD — 2 p.m. Monday vs. San Antonio on FS Carolinas, 7 p.m. Jan. 23 on SportSouth, 10 p.m. Jan. 27 at L.A. Lakers on FS Carolinas and 9 p.m. Jan. 30 at Denver on F.S. Carolinas. Time Warner Cable subscribers can find the HD version of FS Carolinas on channel 272. DirecTV and Dish Network subscribers should check local listings.

In response to an item about the Charlotte Bobcats' decline in TV ratings — they're last in the NBA in local ratings, according to The Nielsen Company — I heard from several Bobcats fans. Turns out they're satellite TV customers, and they're frustrated because Bobcats games are being blacked out.

The Bobcats say DirecTV and Dish Network have picked up the Bobcats in the "inner market" — an NBA-designated 75-mile radius around the arena — but decided not to pick up the Bobcats feed in the "outer market," which includes Raleigh-Durham. Fox Sports says Dish also has a capacity issue.

In the Triangle, Time Warner Cable carries Fox Sports Carolinas — on channel 50 — but not Fox Sports South. The Bobcats games are aired by both networks, but if there's a conflict on FS Carolinas with a Carolina Hurricanes game, the Canes are the priority.

Of the 70 Bobcats games to be televised this year, Fox Sports Carolinas is showing 39 on Time Warner Cable channel 50.

The 65 Canes games on TV go to all of North Carolina except the western-most counties, according to the NHL team. There and in South Carolina, the franchise's so-called "outer market," about 50 games are available on TV.

Bottom line: Until the Bobcats, Fox Sports South and FS Carolinas can persuade the satellite providers to offer the NBA games in the outer market, satellite subscribers who live more than 75 miles from Charlotte are out of luck for now.

Or maybe the more relevant question is: Did Fox Sports Carolinas and Time Warner Cable bet on the wrong horse?

Nielsen put out a report late last week showing that, in the first month of the NBA season, several teams were getting better ratings in their local television markets. The New Orleans Hornets, Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks all showed significant gains.

Nowhere to be found: the Charlotte Bobcats.

In response to our request, Nielsen provided the entire list, and the Bobcats were last in the league in local TV ratings with a 0.425 average household rating — the percentage of TV households in that market tuned to Bobcats games. That's actually a drop of 65 percent from last year's Bobcats number for the same time period, despite all the team's Carolina ties — GM Michael Jordan, head coach Larry Brown, point guard Raymond Felton, forward Sean May, etc.

To put it another way, the Bobcats are doing no better in Charlotte than hockey's Carolina Hurricanes, even though the Canes are based in Raleigh. (It's tougher to say exactly how well, or poorly, the Bobcats are doing in the Triangle, because Fox Sports Carolinas doesn't track viewers specifically in this area.)

It's not as if the Bobcats are putting a great product on the court. They're 4-9.

In April, the Bobcats completed a deal with Time Warner Cable for the naming rights to Charlotte Bobcats Arena and for moving Bobcats game telecasts from Time Warner's News 14 to Fox Sports South, which presumably offered the team much more TV exposure. Evidently, the benefits aren't showing up yet.

The teams with the best local ratings so far, according to The Nielsen Company:

1. San Antonio 6.6
2. Cleveland 6.2
3. Portland 5.0
4. Utah 4.8
5. L.A. Lakers 4.2
6. Detroit 4.1
7. Phoenix 4.0
8. Boston 3.4
9. Houston 3.2
10. Chicago 2.9

From Talking Points:

If you're a DirecTV or Dish Network customer, don't bother looking for the 39 Bobcats games being broadcast on Fox Sports Carolinas. As viewers in the Triangle found out last night, the two satellite providers are only carrying the Bobcats in the Charlotte area.

Read more here.

If you're a DirecTV or Dish Network customer, don't bother looking for the 39 Bobcats games being broadcast on Fox Sports Carolinas. As viewers in the Triangle found out last night, the two satellite providers are only carrying the Bobcats in the Charlotte area.

After agreeing to televise more Carolina Hurricanes games, landing a deal to carry the Charlotte Bobcats and adding South Carolina to its lineup, Fox Sports South decided it had enough programming to launch a Carolinas network.

Hence the new Fox Sports Carolinas, to be abbreviated as FSCR in television program listings. You'll be able to get it on the same channel you're using to watch FSN South, for example channel 50 if you subscribe in Raleigh to Time Warner Cable. FSN South will send a more Carolinas-specific feed to Time Warner for viewers in those two states, says Jeff Genthner, senior vice president and general manager of Fox Sports South and FS Carolinas.

"It was time to really localize our brand," Genthner says.

FS Carolinas will televise 65 Canes games this year (up from 55), 70 Bobcats games and 43 ACC men's basketball games, including 19 on Sunday nights. The new regional sports network will look for additional opportunities to line up programming of local interest.

FS Carolinas also will carry women’s basketball, baseball, Olympic sports and coaches’ shows. The network says viewers will continue to see regional programming, including Atlanta Braves baseball and Southeastern Conference men’s and women’s basketball, Olympic sports and coaches’ shows.

Does this bolster Time Warner Cable's case that it can reach an agreement with a regional sports network at a time when TWC is still locked in a dispute on that subject with Mid-Atlantic Sports Network?

"I don't know whether we'll have any impact on that whatsoever," Genthner says, who nonetheless notes that MASN carries Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals baseball (the teams co-own MASN), which is "not what I would call local programming."

That's exactly what Time Warner has been arguing.