DirecTV offers RSNs as add-ons in skinny bundles
Some relief for starved Chicago sports fans – but will they take advantage?
As hinted at when it was announced in January, DirecTV is adding regional sports network add-ons to its MySports skinny bundle, including CHSN and Marquee for Chicago-area viewers, just in time for baseball season as the former features the Chicago White Sox, and the latter for the Chicago Cubs.
This comes as CHSN still isn’t available to Comcast subscribers, and the operator is looking to shift Marquee to a more expensive Ultimate tier with other RSNs, which adds a extra $20 a month to customers’ bill. Marquee’s original 2020 deal recently expired; the channel is working off short-term extensions to stay on Comcast.
DirecTV’s MySports costs $70 a month and the add-ons are an extra $20. It’s ten bucks cheaper than the YouTubeTV base plan, which does not have RSN add-ons. In the bundle, you get ESPN and its family of networks; FS1 and FS2; MLB Network and NHL Network (neither are available on YouTubeTV); Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT, TBS, and TruTV; and over-the-air NBC, ABC, and Fox stations. News and business channels are also included.
CBS-owned WBBM-TV is not yet available, and neither is Weigel’s WCIU, which is now the exclusive local broadcast home to the Chicago Sky.
DirecTV’s MySports is only available to stream, not through the traditional satellite dish. It is available as an app on most streaming platforms and connected TVs. The package was created after the collapse of Venu, the planned Disney-Fox-WBD streamer, which was abandoned in January.
But the real question is, will it entice Chicago viewers to switch? So far, Comcast subscribers have rejected every alternative to receiving CHSN and preferred to stick with them, as the channel struck deals with DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, Fubo, Astound/RCN, and made available over-the-air full-time on WJYS’ digital space and has their own streaming app. CHSN’s difficulty in finding an audience was illustrated by Sports Business Journal recently, showing the Bulls’ ratings down 63 percent in households from last year, when they were on the former NBC Sports Chicago.
The lackluster play of the Bulls, White Sox, and Blackhawks has helped tempered demand for the channel.
The situation is a bit dire for the White Sox, which has no nationally scheduled games this season as they finished with the worst record in baseball history last year with a 41-121 record and aren’t expected to be competitive this season. With the team buried on a little-watched multicast channel, the team’s visibility in Chicago could vanish as the MLS’ Chicago Fire faces a worse situation, buried behind an Apple TV paywall and heavily relying on local Chicago media’s news and sports shows to let the city’s residents know they still exist.
Meanwhile, don’t look for any relief from the FCC regarding the lack of carriage of CHSN on Comcast, YouTubeTV, or any other provider since Chairman Brendan Carr is far more concerned with getting phony “faith-based networks” on the Google-owned virtual provider than CHSN or Marquee – although it would help if Chicago’s sportsball teams played any better.
Priorities, people.