LOS ANGELES—In a $56.7 billion deal, Charter Communications has agreed to purchase Time Warner Cable. The acquisition will bring SportsNet LA, which is owned by the Dodgers to a larger customer base in Los Angeles.

Prior to this deal, Time Warner exclusively carried games on the SportsNet LA channel. This deal gives nearly 300,000 Charter subscribers in the Los Angeles region access to SportsNet LA. Customers in Malibu, Burbank, Long Beach, Pasadena and other areas will have the channel within weeks.

Companies such as DirecTV, Dish Network and AT&T U-Verse make up nearly 70 percent of the LA cable market. That same 70 percent is unable to access the channel from home. The merging of these two companies puts pressure on them to negotiate deals for customers who desire watching the Dodgers game all season long.

Charter, a Stamford Connecticut based communications company is the fourth-largest cable operater in the United States. With this deal they are on their way to becoming the third-largest. Although the deal has been agreed upon, government regulators would still need to approve. A month ago, Comcast walked away from  $45.2 billion after pressure from regulators. In addition to purchasing Time Warner, Charter purchased, Bright House Networks, a smaller cable provider in four states, for $10.4 billion.