Yes, I'm sure the channel will still be around, I'm mainly concerned with access. Yes, they did sign a long term contract with TWC, but as far as we know there is still no carriage deal with DIRECTV. With TWC being "sold" it's quite possible that any negotiations between TWC(now or will be Comcast) have been suspended pending what the eventual new owner(Comcast) wants. We don't know what stipulations were made in the deal regarding existing/future carriage deals, that's what concerns me.
That would be a plus, but even then we've seen where it still takes a very long time to actually get a carriage deal done.
I just want to be able to see the Dodgers play come Feb 26 and I can't shake the feeling that this deal is going to make that much more difficult.