We’re now nine games into the Blackhawks’ season and three games into the Bulls’ season and the TV home of the Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox – Chicago Sports Network – still isn’t available to Chicago-area subscribers of Comcast, Hulu or YouTubeTV. The once-promising change from NBC Sports Chicago to CHSN has quickly turned into a disaster, with thousands of fans being left without a way to watch their favorite teams.
On Monday, new details were revealed that suggest the network has decided to roll out a new app to Chicago-area consumers, but it won’t be cheap.
Those numbers from Laurence Holmes of 670 The Score are by no means official. It’s also interesting that there is reportedly “movement” with Comcast. After the network didn’t even receive a response from Comcast when they made them multiple offers, the two sides working together would be a bit of a surprise.
The comments section in the above post, and in many others, reveals the sentiment of Chicago sports fans around spending more money to watch their teams – why should they? Most fans of the Bulls, White Sox and Blackhawks have been supporters for years and would never go anywhere else, but it’s no secret that Chicago’s teams haven’t really given their fans much of a reason to watch over the past few seasons. Between the White Sox being the worst baseball team in history, the meddling Bulls, and the bottom-feeding Blackhawks, how many fans will be willing to pay $300 per year to suffer through their seasons?
While the three teams haven’t given fans much to watch, the potential release of the app is big news for in-market fans eager to get their teams back on TVs again. With the Blackhawks and Bulls already off and running, the network won’t want to delay the release much longer, instead trying to salvage as much revenue as it can.
Holmes added that the app will “look and feel different in a good way,” in the same sense that Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime offers viewers a different experience. He reported that CHSN is still waiting on approval from the NBA, but once that happens, we could see the app rolled out within the next few weeks.
