CHSN struggles to gain distribution foothold

The move back to free, over-the-air TV for sports is hitting road bumps

You would think making all games from the Chicago Blackhawks, Bulls, and White Sox available for free on broadcast television would be terrific for fans, right?

Well, you might want to think again.

Two weeks after the new Chicago Sports Network (CHSN) launched, the network is having distribution issues as Xfinity (the branded name Comcast uses to sell its products) has yet to get on board. 

Like other regional sports networks, Comcast wants to put CHSN on a higher-paid tier while they want it on the basic tier, where the former NBC Sports Chicago was. Comcast has been moving RSNs to higher tiers as they did with Bally Sports and Seattle’s Root Sports. Negotiations are ongoing, but the Blackhawks season has already started, and the Bulls’ first regular season game is October 23 against New Orleans. 

Despite gaining carriage on over-the-air TV via independent WJYS through their 62.2 and 62.3 subchannels, DirecTV, and Astound RCN, viewers on social media are still complaining about the lack of carriage on Xfinity and virtual carriers such as YouTubeTV.

Fans usually celebrate when their teams break away from the faltering RSN system by going through streaming, over-the-air, or both to distribute their games. But in Chicago, the situation is different. Despite all the noise of cord-cutting you’ve heard about, many homes in the Chicago area still subscribe to cable with one million estimated Xfinity customers in the nation’s third-largest television market. Unlike other major cities, Chicago proper was late to the cable TV game with wiring beginning in the mid-1980s and not being completed until the mid-1990s.

And unlike other cities where teams are striking deals with over-the-air stations for carriage, the move of Blackhawks, Bulls, and White Sox games to WJYS hasn’t been greeted with a lot of enthusiasm – for one, the former home shopping channels aren’t carried on any cable, satellite, or virtual providers. Second, many Chicago cable viewers refuse to buy antennas, feeling they don’t need or want to. Chalk it up to the failure of broadcasters, the FCC, and others to educate viewers about the 2009 transition from analog to digital TV. 

Third, viewers who live in some apartment buildings in the Chicago area can’t easily switch to another provider because Comcast (or another cable or satellite company) has an exclusive deal to provide ISP services, usually baked into those leases residents sign. In 2019, a previously passed ordinance to let residents in San Francisco multi-unit apartment buildings choose their cable and ISP provider was vetoed by the FCC in a 3-2 partisan vote as cable companies and politically connected real estate owners objected. 

Finally, even if viewers buy an antenna, pulling in 62.2 and 62.3 isn’t guaranteed as tropo conditions, trees, and even a building’s insulation can block signals from getting through, a problem in numerous Chicago highrises if the failure to get WBBM-TV’s digital signal when the conversion began was any indication. 

Another problem is the lack of a direct-to-consumer app, as CHSN has yet to develop one. Marquee launched a DTC app three years after signing on.

Knowing the RSN model is in collapse, most fans blame CHSN for a lack of preparation, making these announcements weeks before launch. This is mainly because the principals behind the new channel—Jerry Reinsdorf and the Wirtzes—don’t have the best reputation among local sports fans, given the unflattering—and well-deserved—awful publicity each received in the last four years. It’s telling fans are not blaming Comcast for this, given their reputation is just as bad. 

CHSN is working to expand its product reach to more homes and viewers. Negotiations are ongoing with Comcast, Hulu Plus Live TV, Fubo, and the continued development of the DTC app. But the network launch should have been much smoother.