How White Sox games will be brought to you is changing.
This morning, the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks officially announced their plans for a new TV network named the Chicago Sports Network. It will host more than 300 Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox games throughout the season and broadcast from studios from within the United Center and Guaranteed Rate Field. The announcement also states that the network will launch with agreements in place with traditional cable providers and streaming services and be available via free, over-the-air broadcast.
The service will begin in October with Blackhawks and Bulls preseason games.
According to 670 The Score’s Bruce Levine, Jason Coyle will be in charge of the new Chicago Sports Network. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the former CEO of Stadium, this seems to clear up recent conflicting reports about Stadium’s involvement in this network. A previous report from The Athletic said there would be no association with Stadium, while a report from April suggested the three teams were nearing a deal with Stadium. So, while the company itself will not be involved, their former CEO will be. Mario Tirabassi of CHGO confirmed this report, stating that Standard Media Group, based out of Nashville, Tenn., is expected to establish the new network.
According to Scott Powers of The Athletic Chicago, the teams expect carriage with most cable providers, but the biggest hurdle will be Comcast, the biggest cable provider in Chicago. Per his recent report:
“One of the main upsides to the team broadcasting on NBC Sports Chicago (originally called Comcast SportsNet Chicago) was that Comcast carried them and the channel wasn’t placed in the most expensive cable tier. Going by Comcast’s recent negotiations with Bally Sports, this could be a challenge for the new channel.”
– Scott Powers (via The Athletic)
It is still early, so we will continue to provide updates as they become available. However, there has also been no word about on-air personalities, so this is information we can begin to expect in the coming weeks, especially if the network plans to be ready for an October air date. Changes to the in-game broadcasts are unlikely, according to Powers, because they are team employees.
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Well… whatever the cost, I for one will not pay for it. Any penny spent on a Reinsdorf endeavour is wasted money.