What's up with Time Warner and MASN?

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.