The Chicago Sports Network (CHSN) has debuted, but a lot of fans still can’t watch the brand-new television home of the Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox.
And Blackhawks chairman Danny Wirtz is dissatisfied, according to a Sun-Times report this week.
In an exclusive interview with the Sun-Times, Wirtz discussed CHSN’s rollout, saying, “We’re disappointed we haven’t reached full distribution of our goals.”
CHSN made its debut broadcast on Oct. 1 for a Blackhawks preseason game. The team has now had three of its four regular-season games on CHSN — the season opener in Utah was nationally televised on ESPN — with Thursday night’s home opener up next.
The Bulls have also had preseason games on the new network.
According to the Sun-Times report, it isn’t the quality of CHSN’s Blackhawks broadcasts, or the content, that Wirtz has been displeased with. Rather, it’s the distribution of CHSN.
The Blackhawks are a full week into the regular season, the report notes, and still haven’t reached a carriage agreement with Comcast, which is Chicagoland’s main cable provider.
Additionally, the Sun-Times reports, CHSN hasn’t reached carriage agreements with two streaming services, Hulu and Fubo, and is not expected to ever reach one with YouTube, the most popular live-TV streaming service.
Regarding YouTube, it should be noted that CHSN isn’t alone in that regard. As noted in a previous Sun-Times report, YouTube has ditched most regional sports networks, so it would seem likely it wouldn’t reach an agreement with CHSN, either.
“Our goal has been, and continues to be, to ensure that our games are in as many fans’ pockets as possible, in whatever form that can take,” Wirtz told the Sun-Times. “I acknowledge that, as we’re doing this interview, it’s not where we want (it) to be.”
As of now, CHSN can be viewed over-the-air on Channels 62.2 and 62.3 after reaching an agreement with Millennial Telecommunications’ WJYS-TV. It can also be received via over-the-air antenna, not always the easiest method for fans to get set up and working properly.
Additionally, CHSN is available across some satellite, cable and streaming platforms after reaching agreements with Astound Broadband and DIRECTV. So Blackhawks and Bulls games can now be seen on Astound, DIRECTV, DIRECTV Stream and U-verse.
Click HERE for more information on how you can watch CHSN on its current distributors.
Still, as the Sun-Times reports, CHSN lacks agreements with other major distributors — most significantly Comcast — which is making fans angry before the new network can gain any traction.
Not to mention, it’s impacting teams’ revenue, which would defeat the purpose for the teams launching CHSN in the first place.
Wirtz tells the Sun-Times he’s “hopeful” more distribution agreements will be hammered out soon.
“We are negotiating,” Wirtz told the Sun-Times. “We’re very flexible. Unfortunately, in these cases, it takes two sides to find the value in this.”