Sox, Bulls, Hawks Launching 'Chicago Sports Network' (June '24 Announcement)

[Georgie56 3304]

Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Edited June 3, 2024 by 24994J

[Spring Rubber 703]

Given that it's just internal talk at the moment, I suppose it's too early to tell what exactly might happen. Sounds like the possibilities are wide open at this point. Whatever the arrangement might be after October 2024, I assume it ought to launch with a heavy streaming component.

[nycnewsjunkie 1441]

4 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Wirtz and Reinsdorf wouldn’t need to start entirely from scratch. They could feasibly buy out Comcast’s 25% share of NBCS Chicago and they’d have their own RSN. Given that Comcast can’t find a buyer for their RSNs (since they aren’t in demand,) this would be an easy way for Comcast to sell one of them. Both sides would essentially get what they want.

[NYAZSporty 128]

Well, it's going to happen come October with the launch of generically-named Chicago Sports Network. https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports-media/2024/06/03/chicago-sports-network-will-be-new-home-of-white-sox-bulls-blackhawks-beginning-in-october

[Megatron81 258]

Yeah, I agree should just buy NBC Sports Chi and rebrand it Chi Sports Network in my opinion. I wonder if Stadium will air some of the White Sox, Bulls, & Blackhawks come Oct.

[MD TV 258]

It's funny, this is how Fox Sports Chicago ended about 20 years ago, with those teams and the Cubs leaving there.

[Jase 1047]

2 hours ago, Megatron81 said:

Yeah, I agree should just buy NBC Sports Chi and rebrand it Chi Sports Network in my opinion. I wonder if Stadium will air some of the White Sox, Bulls, & Blackhawks come Oct.

 

Reinsdorf wouldn't have spent the $$$ to buy NBC Sports Chicago. We all know how cheap this guy is which is why they went with converting Stadium to Chicago Sports Network and bringing in some random company (Standard Media) to help with distribution. And what kind of name is Chicago Sports Network??? That's the best they could come up with???

[NYAZSporty 128]

40 minutes ago, Jase said:

 

Reinsdorf wouldn't have spent the $$$ to buy NBC Sports Chicago. We all know how cheap this guy is which is why they went with converting Stadium to Chicago Sports Network and bringing in some random company (Standard Media) to help with distribution. And what kind of name is Chicago Sports Network??? That's the best they could come up with???

TBH, whatever name that was gonna be brought up for the new RSN, there's going to be ppl that'll knock it around because that's the nature of the beast that is social media, although while generic, the name at least labels the purpose of the RSN, it's better than coming up with crazy names like Venu Sports.

[SDHIll1980 102]

Hell, if Reinsdorf was going to name this new channel, he should went old-school and brought back the "SportsVision" name.  A better name than "Chicago Sports Network", in my opinion.

[Jase 1047]

1 hour ago, NYCsporty said:

TBH, whatever name that was gonna be brought up for the new RSN, there's going to be ppl that'll knock it around because that's the nature of the beast that is social media, although while generic, the name at least labels the purpose of the RSN, it's better than coming up with crazy names like Venu Sports.

 

When you're trying to start a new sports network in an environment in which most RSNs are struggling, the last thing you want to do is pick a generic name. Given that the Bulls, Sox and Blackhawks are pretty bad (and likely will be for some time); a cool/interesting name would at least drum up interest in the network. I see this as a missed opportunity from a marketing pov. 

[ORD606 0]

I've spent around a year and a half browsing these forums (without a login), so I figured I would finally start an account.

 

For those with an antenna in Chicago, good news!!  The channel numbers for the network have been confirmed: WJYS 62.2, .3, "which will convert to HD and full time CHSN content beginning Oct. 1."

[Samantha 2895]

They're not there now, but apparently Gray is on board to dedicate subchannels of WSLN (Rockford) and WNDU (South Bend) to this service. I'd hope that the secondary channel would be static when not in use to optimize bandwidth.

 

I could see a future where Yvonne Stroud (whose husband Joe died in April) sells WJYS soon. They are probably making good money from this arrangement, which makes sense when considering that WJYS has primarily been a paid programming purveyor in 33+ years of broadcasting.

[TheRolyPoly 2415]

21 hours ago, ORD606 said:

For those with an antenna in Chicago, good news!!  The channel numbers for the network have been confirmed: WJYS 62.2, .3, "which will convert to HD and full time CHSN content beginning Oct. 1."

 

For the record, WJYS 62.2 will be the full-time feed with WJYS 62.3 as the overflow feed. Both will be WJYS' ONLY HD feeds because even the main feed is still in 4:3 SD as of this post.

[Megatron81 258]

Seems the hold up with Comcast could be because the CHSN is over the air from the headlines I read. I just think Comcast has no interest in adding CHSN because the White Sox, Bulls, & Blackhawks left them. Did Comcast drop the Cubs network at the end of Sep as I know the deal was about to expire at that time that I read on B&C in the summer.

[TheRolyPoly 2415]

Mully and Haugh have been a popular radio show on 670 WSCR for the last 15 years.

 

They finally got their TV debut as of this week on CHSN.

 

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=964270315719056&id=100064082883824

[Megatron81 258]

WWMT DT4 has put CHSN on the subchannel Blackhawks & Bulls games are blacked out even the replays what was the point to putting this channel on in West Michigan it's a waste of DT space for it in my opinion. 

[nathannah 2429]

It does look like Sinclair did a bulk sign-up for CHSN; WVTV just signed on 24.4 to carry it in Milwaukee (Blackhawks-only; Wisconsin is a bizarre market where FDSN carries Wild games and the Blackhawks just haven't had any carriage outside its partners in Kenosha County), along with KMEG in Sioux City and WHOI in Peoria (assume all three teams there).

[Jase 1047]

WGN interested in airing Chicago Sports Network broadcasts, confident a deal can work

 

'WGN TV is interested in carrying local sports again and believes there’s a path to air Chicago Sports Network broadcasts of the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks that much of the area has missed, the Sun-Times has learned. The sides would have to sort out a lot of details, such as how many games would be included and who would sell advertising for them. Though WGN isn’t positioned to pay a substantial rights fee — the teams would have to treat it as a marketing expense — it could deliver the teams their largest TV audience since they launched CHSN in October.'

[nathannah 2429]

WGN has a good offer, but CHSN already has a television partner in WJYS; the issue is that they need to convince them to switch to RTC next go around to force carriage (or CHSN pays them extra to bump it to their DT1 for the Sox season until this is all resolved so pay-TV fans can watch), or that CHSN needs to figure out their issues with Comcast. It's obvious they're asking for too much and need to lower their pricing to get on there, and Reinsdorf is stubborn.

Also this would be self-inflicted and stupid on Nexstar's part; either they want to run WGN as a news-heavy CW O&O as intended by dumping the rights back in '19, or they go back to sports and create a messy situation where CW programming is bumped to Antenna TV and now you've made NASCAR and your college football partners mad because they don't have Chicago carriage or you're back to a situation where WCIU has to carry your stuff because of this goofy offer. This is a good proposal for WCIU or even WCPX, but it addresses nothing about the main problem with CHSN and will end with viewer annoyance, along with WGN staff having to deal with news at midnight once again because of West Coast road games.