MLB Network, being launched Thursday, will carry 26 live games on Thursday nights this season, but it is counting more on its “MLB Tonight” studio show, original series and classic games to entice viewers. By giving Time Warner Cable, Comcast, DirecTV and Cox a financial stake, baseball ensured that the network will be launched with a huge advantage — it’s already in about 50 million TV households. Tony Petitti, the former CBS Sports executive who heads MLB Network, spoke with staff writer Roger van der Horst.

Now that Time Warner Cable says it will raise its monthly rates effective Jan. 1, this is a good time to review TWC's various packages and take a look at what a couple of other services offer.

Fox Sports Carolinas will televise the Carolina Hurricanes' game 1 p.m. Saturday at Boston, which will be on Time Warner Cable channel 50, Dish Network channel 444-452 and DirecTV channel 647.

On Sunday, fans can watch the Canes' 7 p.m. game at Montreal on the NHL Network, which is available in Raleigh as a part of TWC's sports tier on channel 330, and on Dish channel 403 and DirecTV channel 215.

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.

As if you need to be reminded, Thursday night's NFL game between the New York Jets and New England Patriots is being televised only on the NFL Network, which means you can't watch it if you're a Time Warner Cable customer. Among your options: Go to a bar or find a friend who subscribes to one of the two satellite TV services, DirecTV or Dish Network; listen to the game on radio station 99.9 FM The Fan; or follow the game online via NFL.com's live "look-ins."

The NFL says fans can choose between two video streams. One stream alternates between the NFL Network’s game broadcast and its live studio show. The second video stream complements the first with a "sideline pass," showing alternative camera angles via live look-ins. NFL.com Live also will feature on-demand video, allowing fans to have access to game highlights throughout the broadcast.

TWC and the NFL don't appear to be budging from their positions — the league wants Time Warner to put its network on expanded basic cable, which is cheaper and reaches a much larger audience than a special sports tier. TWC says that, with only eight live games a year, the NFL Network's programming isn't worth the "tens of millions" of dollars the NFL is demanding. Time Warner is still willing to put the NFL Network on a more expensive sports digital tier "at terms that would be fair to our customers," spokeswoman Melissa Buscher says.

In October, FCC Media Bureau Chief Monica Shah Desai determined that the cable company Comcast had discriminated against the NFL Network and improperly demanded a financial interest in the network in exchange for carriage. The bureau chief refused to dismiss the NFL's complaint and ordered a hearing before an administrative law judge.

The NFL claims that Comcast moved the NFL Network from a digital basic tier to a premium sports tier after the league refused to grant rights to the eight live games to Comcast's Versus Network. In contrast, the NFL and Time Warner Cable never reached a deal.

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.

DirecTV has figured out a way to tell a lot of Triangle NFL fans what they already know, but they might be surprised to find out where the biggest collection of Cowboy fans outside Dallas is located.