Bulls, Other Clubs Ask Time Warner to Carry Orioles, Nats Network

Durham, N.C. — Executives of the state's nine minor league baseball clubs, including the Durham Bulls, say they want Time Warner Cable to add the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) to its basic service tier.

MASN carries Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals games and more than 200 football, basketball and lacrosse games involving North Carolina universities, the executives said.

Carrying major league ball helps interest in the minor league clubs, which helps local economies, they told Time Warner President and CEO Glenn A. Britt in a letter, dated Monday.

Melissa Buscher, a spokeswoman for Time Warner's Triangle and Fayetteville operation, said company officials feel it would be unfair to impose the cost of acquiring MASN programming on all customers because interest in the games is low.

Until this year, Orioles games were on a Fox sports network that Time Warner offered, Buscher noted. When MASN pulled those games from Fox for this season, Times Warner received "virtually no calls," she said.

Buscher said Time Warner has tried to negotiate a deal to put MASN on a digital channel, but the two sides have been unable to agree on terms.