When the Chicago Sports Network went live Oct. 1, it didn’t have a deal to be carried by Comcast, the market’s largest pay-TV provider. But it touted an old school solution — broadcasting the network over-the-air — as a way to reach new fans in Chicago.
The great free-TV regional sports network experiment lasted eight months, a sudden demise that may be creating some static among Chicago viewers that bought into the antenna solution.
The nascent sports network finally joined the Comcast lineup Friday, but on the higher-priced Ultimate tier, which costs an additional $20 per month, on top of the $20.25 regional sports network fee charged to Chicago-area subscribers each month.
In the wake of the deal, CHSN abruptly pulled the plug Monday on local TV affiliates in Chicago, Rockford, Peoria, and Fort Wayne and South Bend, Indiana.
“We are excited by our recent announcement bringing CHSN to Comcast viewers across the Chicagoland area, and we have heard a great deal of enthusiastic support from those viewers,” a CHSN spokesperson said in an email. “While we appreciate the frustration felt by OTA users in the impacted markets, we continue to make OTA available in certain areas outside of Chicagoland.”
That leaves an untold number of fans who may have purchased an indoor antenna, a new receiver or even clambered up onto a roof to hook up an outdoor antenna, with a bunch of wires and a blank TV screen where the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks once beamed into their homes.
Tom Hedstrom from Skokie, who said he’s been a White Sox fan since 1952, is one of them.
“The worst thing about this deal was CHSN agreeing to pull the plug on OTA,” Hedstrom said in an email Monday.
A Comcast subscriber whose older TV was not equipped to receive the digital over-the-air broadcasts, Hedstrom bought a new receiver — at CHSN’s advice — to go with his antenna, and was able to view the network within weeks of its October launch.
But Hedstrom will now need to upgrade his Comcast subscription to continue watching CHSN.
“As a result, it will cost me an additional $30 per month because I will need to change my TV service from ‘Popular’ to ‘Ultimate’ and pay the full RSN fee plus some additional tax,” Hedstrom said. “Will I do it? Yes, but I’m unhappy about it.”
Getting on Comcast, and potentially reaching its one million Chicago-area subscribers, was nonetheless crucial for CHSN.
A joint venture between the Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks and Nashville, Tennessee-based Standard Media, CHSN went live Oct.1 on pay-TV platforms DirecTV and Astound, and over the air in Chicago and several other markets. It added streaming service FuboTV and its own direct-to-consumer app, but was unable to strike a deal with Comcast, the market’s largest pay-TV provider.
In Chicago, CHSN leased two digital subchannels of WJYS-Ch. 62, a full-powered UHF TV station licensed to Hammond, to broadcast the sports network in high-definition to anyone that could capture the signal with a TV antenna.
About 15% of the 3.46 million homes in the Chicago market watch TV using an antenna, according to Nielsen. Beyond reception limitations, some viewers with older TVs needed to buy new receivers to get the picture, a problem CHSN addressed on its website.
Prior to launching the network, Jason Coyle, president of Chicago Sports Network, told the Tribune the over-the-air platform was an integral part of the strategy to “reimagine” regional sports networks amid cord-cutting and declining pay-TV subscribers.
But the over-the-air offering proved to be a stumbling block in negotiations with Comcast, which balked at paying carriage fees to CHSN for programming some viewers could get for free.
Comcast also pushed for moving CHSN to its more expensive Ultimate tier, something it has done with other regional sports networks across the U.S. in recent months. The Marquee Sports Network, the pay-TV home of the Cubs, remains on the lower-priced basic tier, at least for now.
CHSN went live Friday on Comcast Channel 200, where its predecessor NBC Sports Chicago, resided until last fall. For Comcast customers on the lower-priced basic plan, Channel 200 bears a message that CHSN requires a subscription upgrade to watch.
Comcast declined to say how many Chicago-area customers currently subscribe to the Ultimate plan.
“We don’t provide the percentage of customers on Ultimate but can confirm that many sports fans already subscribe to the Ultimate TV level of service because of its comprehensive sports channel lineup,” a Comcast spokesperson said in an email Monday.
Going live on Comcast Friday may have already given CHSN a boost in ratings. Sources said Friday’s primetime audience for the Sox-Royals game was up 66% over the previous week’s Sox-Orioles broadcast, which was prior to Comcast joining the pay-TV lineup.
Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based sports marketing consultant, said it was nonetheless unlikely that many subscribers will upgrade to the Ultimate plan amid another losing White Sox campaign, with the team sporting the worst record in the American League through 66 games.
He said subscription upgrades will likely pick up when the teams do better.
“It will be one of those rare examples when the customers will speak very loudly with their purchases deciding when and whether they choose to pay up or not for the sports package upgrade,” Ganis said.
Cheered by many, the new carriage deal has nonetheless frustrated some Chicago sports fans, especially those who took the antenna plunge, and now are being asked to pay up to see CHSN on Comcast.
Erin Blasko, a longtime Sox fan living in South Bend, watched CHSN over-the-air on the digital subchannel of local affiliate WHME-TV.
“I’m disappointed to learn CHSN is ending its OTA broadcasts,” Blasko said in an email. “The Sox and other MLB teams should be expanding — not shrinking — opportunities for fans to watch games at all price levels.”
While Comcast is available on the Ultimate tier in South Bend, Blasko, who hasn’t subscribed to the cable provider “in more than 15 years,” plans to sign up for the $19.99 per month CHSN streaming app to keep watching the Sox this season.
Keith Williams, a Comcast Ultimate subscriber who lives in north suburban Lake Forest, bought a $70 amplified indoor antenna in September as a backup for when his cable service goes out. It ended up in the starting lineup, delivering CHSN amid the protracted Comcast blackout through the entire Bulls and Blackhawks seasons, and a chunk of the current White Sox season.
While CHSN is now live on his cable plan, Williams said the cost to watch the regional sports network has risen enough for him to consider other pay-TV options.
“Sad though that Comcast forced them to take OTA service away from people … and especially away from people who will find $500 per year to be a substantial or overwhelming burden on their family budgets,” Williams said in an email.
Meanwhile, David Perlman, a Comcast Ultimate subscriber in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, was never able to get the CHSN over-the-air broadcasts. He tried an old roof antenna, bought a new antenna and eventually gave up as both the Bulls and Hawks seasons slipped away.
On Friday, CHSN magically appeared in his Comcast channel lineup. But Perlman said he doesn’t plan to tune in until the Bulls and Hawks return to action.
“Being a lifelong Cubs fan, I have no particular use now for their station until the fall, when next season begins for both teams,” Perlman said.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com