This update to yesterday's post features a rebuttal comment from a MASN spokesperson.

A reader emailed us to ask why he can't watch the Washington Nationals phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg actually pitch in games broadcast here on ESPN and TBS. Unfortunately, that reader is a Time Warner Cable customer, so he'll likely have to get in his car and drive to D.C. to see that happen.

Because of an ongoing contract dispute between the cable company and MASN, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network that carries Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles baseball games, the games are not available here. (Note: MASN is available on DirecTV and Dish Network).

MLB Network expands coverage of live televised games with Saturday night schedule.

A new baseball season is here. Your team is still in it. But Time Warner Cable's long and so far losing fight against MASN threatens to keep much of North Carolina in the dark again this season.

The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which carries the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball, has reached a deal with TriCounty Telecom, a small cable company with about 2,200 customers in parts of Beaufort, Hyde and Washington counties.

Though MASN isn't scheduled to air any more East Carolina men's college basketball games this season, the schedule still includes, here and there, UNC-Wilmington, Liberty (with Stephen Curry's brother, Seth), Gardner-Webb and Charlotte — and an awful lot of Big East games.

Terry Rauple, a spokeswoman for TriCounty Telecom, says the small, member-owned cooperative, based about 60 miles from ECU, had received a lot of requests for MASN. 

TriCounty Telecom offers MASN on channel 58 and MASN2, the sports networks "overflow" programming, on channel 59 of its basic plus package ($39.95 per month).

By the way, no word from the Federal Communications Commission on when the full, five-member commission will take up Time Warner Cable's appeal of the FCC media bureau chief's ruling last fall that TWC had discriminated against MASN by not making it available on a basic or standard tier of service.

In their recent meetings, Major League Baseball owners again stepped out of the batter's box rather than take on the sticky issue of television territories — a matter of particular relevance in this part of North Carolina, where Time Warner Cable fans have no way of viewing the designated home teams, the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals.

The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, co-owned by those two teams, has the rights to their games but hasn't been able to reach a carriage agreement with TWC. Despite losing in three separate rulings — two by independent arbitrators, one by an FCC media bureau chief — Time Warner is appealing to the full, five-member FCC.

Meanwhile, there has been discussion that MLB would start giving teams a certain amount of time to reach agreements to get their games on TV in so-called outlying areas, like the Triangle, or risk losing those territories. But any sort of deadline would complicate the existing television contracts with the various franchises, and MASN insists that any action by the owners would not be relevant in North Carolina because of MLB's "separate and inviolable" agreements with the O's and the Nationals.

So, the owners, who also had more pressing issues — like the need for a salary cap — to discuss, will take up the matter of outlying TV territories again before the start of the season, according to MLB. Unless they decide to table it again.

More than a month has passed since an FCC official ordered Time Warner Cable to begin carrying the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network's programming on basic cable within 30 days.

As you might have guessed, TWC subscribers still can't get MASN. Time Warner, which had vowed to appeal the Oct. 30 decision by Monica Shah Desai, chief of the FCC's Media Bureau, indeed filed an appeal to the five-member Federal Communications Commission last week. The FCC has not specified how long it would take for the full commission to hear and rule on the case.

The bureau chief, backing the decisions of two separate arbitrators, ruled that Time Warner Cable had discriminated against the regional sports network by refusing to put it on an analog tier that most of the cable company's estimated 1.5 million North Carolina subscribers receive. TWC has offered to make MASN available on a more expensive digital sports tier.

MASN carries the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, Major League Baseball's designated home teams for this market, and an extensive slate of college sports programming, including about 25 non-ACC college basketball games involving North Carolina teams such as UNC-Wilmington and Charlotte.

“TWC is flouting the law, the intent of the FCC and the will of their customers,” MASN spokesman Todd Webster says of the latest appeal.

The intent of the FCC may be what Time Warner and other cable companies are seeking to change.

According to a report last week by Multichannel News, which covers the cable television industry, Cablevision is pitching a plan that would bar programmers from demanding carriage that would reach a specified number of subscribers on a cable system, and that the FCC is listening.

“It has been the longstanding view of ... Cablevision that programmers should not be able to withhold their programming from cable, satellite and telco distributors unless it is carried in a designated tier. We believe that programming should be sold on a per-viewing-subscriber basis, and not be required to be distributed to all customers as a condition of carriage,” Cablevision said in a prepared statement published by Multichannel News.

In case you're wondering what else MASN carries besides Major League Baseball games involving the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, the regional sports network just released its college basketball game schedule for this season.

MASN doesn't have the rights to ACC games, of course, but there are a lot of games from the Big East, Conference USA and Colonial Athletic Association, among other conferences. MASN's lineup of more than 200 games includes more than 80 Big East games.

The UNC-Wilmington men will be on MASN nine times, Charlotte five, Davidson three, East Carolina three, Gardner-Webb twice, UNC-Asheville twice, High Point twice, and Western Carolina, UNC-Greensboro, Wake Forest and Elon once each.

Federal Communications Commission Mary Diamond says Time Warner Cable has 30 days to appeal a ruling in the MASN case to the full, five-member commission. But Diamond couldn't say how long the appeal would take once it is filed.

TWC is continuing its fight despite FCC Media Bureau Chief Monica Shah Desai's order on Thursday that the cable TV company put MASN on a standard analog tier within 30 days. The FCC official backed two previous rulings by arbitrators that Time Warner has unlawfully discriminated against MASN, which carries the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals.

The Federal Communications Commission has denied an appeal by Time Warner Cable and ordered the cable television company to begin carrying the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network on a basic analog tier within 30 days.

Or, "in time for college basketball season," MASN spokesman Todd Webster says.

But TWC isn't giving up in its long dispute with MASN. The company issued a one-sentence response when informed of the FCC's Media Bureau's decision: "We disagree with the Media Bureau's decision and plan to appeal to the full commission."

MASN carries Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, as well as college football, basketball and other sports. Under MLB's territorial rights map, the Triangle is Orioles and Nationals territory, so during the course of this dispute, cable customers have been unable to watch those games.

But Time Warner has argued that teams so far away from this market would not interest all of its huge basic cable audience and that MASN thus should be made available to subscribers willing to pay extra for a digital sports tier.

Two arbitrators have ruled that Time Warner Cable has discriminated against MASN, an independent regional sports network, and TWC had filed a "petition for review" with the FCC. FCC Media Bureau Chief Monica Shah Desai's denial came today.

This can still be classified as a standoff between the cable television company and the regional sports network that has the rights to televise the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals. You may recall that the Triangle is in the designated TV rights territory of the O's and Nationals, meaning that TWC customers can't watch those baseball games, or any of MASN's college programming, etc., as long as there's no deal.

But there may be movement in the next week or so when the FCC is expected to rule on Time Warner's appeal of decisions by two different arbitrators that it discriminated against MASN by refusing to offer the independent regional sports network as part of its standard cable package. TWC wants to put MASN on a more expensive digital tier, available to those willing to subscribe to it — a much smaller audience.

Time Warner has argued that this should be resolved through the normal course of business negotiations, not by an arbitrator, and that standard cable customers shouldn't be forced to absorb a price hike for programming that may be of little interest to them.

Two arbitrators found that TWC had treated MASN differently fromregional sports networks affiliated with the cable company.