Walter Sought Lump Sum Payout from Charter Communications TV Deal

Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter recently attempted to secure a lump sum payout by offering to let Charter Communications exit its local television deals with the Dodgers and the Los Angeles Lakers early, as Sports Illustrated first reported, citing reporting from Puck's John Ourand.

Charter Communications, which paid $8 billion for the rights to broadcast Dodgers games through 2038, declined the proposal. The network, SportsNet LA, generates an average of $334 million annually before revenue sharing from 2014 to 2038. The payouts are directed to American Media Productions, a shell company owned by Guggenheim Baseball Management.

Sports Illustrated reports that Walter's efforts to secure cash come amid a federal investigation into the relationship between insurance companies Walter controls and the businesses that received loans from them. This financial pressure has seen Walter sell his majority share of the Los Angeles Lakers and enter talks to sell his stake in the English Premier League's Chelsea FC.

While Charter rejected the buyout, the cable company recently completed a $34.5 billion acquisition of Cox Communications, which expanded the availability of SportsNet LA to Cox customers across Southern California and Las Vegas. It remains unclear how the purchase of the Lakers by Kushner and Iger will impact the ongoing process involving the Raine Group, which Charter hired late last year to attempt to sell the regional sports network that carries Lakers games.