The Wirtz and Reinsdorf families have done it again: ruined a great thing in Chicago. Chicago Sports Network launched on Oct. 1, holding exclusive regional rights to broadcast Chicago White Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls games in collaboration between the teams’ owners. Yet over a month after its launch, Chicago’s largest cable provider, Comcast, noticeably doesn’t offer the network, meaning millions of fans throughout the Chicago area are missing the opportunity to watch their favorite team’s games.
It’s disgraceful that three huge teams in one of the largest media markets can’t get a deal figured out to service the fans who have supported them through what has been an admittedly-terrible time to be a Chicago sports fan. Comcast is by far the largest player in the Chicago TV market, believed to be in over half of local households, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. DirecTV and Fubo are the two largest streaming or satellite TV providers currently carrying CHSN, but their reach is still minuscule compared to Comcast. Other big hitters such as YouTube and Hulu have zero interest in carrying it either. After all, why would they? The White Sox just recorded the worst record in MLB history, the Blackhawks haven’t made the playoffs for the last four seasons and the Bulls haven’t won a playoff series in nine years. I see why no one wants to buy CHSN — it sounds like lighting money on fire.
Coupled with the fact that most regional sports networks come with high carriage fees to begin with, leading to YouTube TV dropping all RSNs from their offerings, it makes sense why Comcast is holding out on making a deal.
As a Chicago sports fan, this is terrible. Not being able to watch your favorite team play unless you have DirecTV, Fubo or Astound absolutely blows. I didn’t even know Fubo and Astound were real things until CHSN launched their website. CHSN is now offering the network over-the-air, but antennas have been out of use for 30 years and it has horrendous quality. It should not be this hard to watch local professional sports on TV.
I see why the big providers want to stay away. The last five years of Chicago sports have been disappointing to say the least. I believe that Chicago sports are on the way up though. The White Sox can’t get any worse than this past year, the Blackhawks also just drafted the most hyped up prospect since Sidney Crosby in Connor Bedard and the Bulls are still okay at best, but it is still very early in the season. Wirtz and Reinsdorf need to do a better job at selling Chicago sports. The market is huge and Chicago fans are in a frenzy over this. While the big name providers might not be giving them the money they want, millions of Chicagoans are missing out in the meantime. After the pain and suffering the Wirtz and Reinsdorf families have put us through in the last eight years I would assume that they would want to do something nice for the fans who have supported them through thick and thin. I guess not.
