Our long regional nightmare is over.
The Chicago sports network is should be launched on Comcast Cable FridayProbably in time for the play of the Royals-White Sox, the Sun-Totes learned. This will allow around 1 million XFINITY customers in the region to watch the rest of the SOX season and not to miss another whole season of Bulls and Blackhawks.
After having fought to be launched on the level of popular programming, the intermediate level of Comcast channels, CHSN will appear on the ultimate level, which costs an additional $ 20 per month. Customers had received a monthly credit of $ 8.85 to compensate for the loss of NBC Sports Chicago, the former team house, which left the planes on September 30.
So, what made Comcast, the dominant television provider of the region, agrees to end his CHSN failure after more than eight months? It was certainly not the game of teams. They did not make the network of favors by lose as often as they have it. It is not a way to create a lever effect.
CHSN knew that its path to a large distribution would be bumpy, in particular with Comcast, which moved regional sports networks across the country to its highest level of programming. The initiates of the industry have speculated on four possible reasons The parties concluded an agreement.
CHSN lowered the price requested
Programmers charge distributors monthly costs by subscriber to transport a channel, and the distributor transmits the cost to consumers. This reason seems unlikely because the CHSN could not have asked too much, given the state of the RSN and that of its teams. This information is normally locked by non-disclosure agreements.
CHSN has agreed to be on several levels
CHSN staff know that if Comcast was going to transport the network, it would end with the ultimate level. Standard Media, who joins the teams to manage the distribution, fought this fate, but in vain. Although the CHSN will not have the scope it would be at a lower level, this will generate more advertising revenue on Comcast than in the air on the Wjys sub-cansals.
Interestingly, the Cubs brand sports network should stay on the popular level throughout the season and go to the ultimate level before next season. Brand has been mainly accelerated, and certainly the Cubs field success helped.
Comcast lost subscribers
Is it possible that enough SOX fans do enough to attract the attention of Comcast? This information is difficult to obtain, and the company seems more focused on strengthening its Internet service than soothing SOX fans anyway.
CHSN has agreed to reduce live access
This would go against part of the network’s business plan, which was to extend its footprint in the team’s television territory to sell advertising. OTA’s distribution has never been supposed to replace the distribution that the CHSN could not achieve. It was more an act of good will with customers until the network achieves its objectives.
But Comcast did not see this in this way, wondering why he should pay for a channel that was free for everyone. This is the point of collision n ° 1 in the negotiations, which led some to believe that the CHSN has agreed to reduce the number of games available in the air to grant Comcast a certain exclusivity on the market.
The answer could be everything, none or a part above. One of the reasons that is not behind the relaxation is NBC’s to come with the NBA. The theory was that Comcast, which owns NBC, would like to promote games that will be broadcast on the network and the Peacock streaming service during the Bulls Games on Chsn.
If this was the case, according to sources, Comcast would wait for the NBA season to settle the dispute and not pay to transport the CHSN for the next four months. Comcast and NBC are not one and the same. Comcast has nbcuniversal, which has and operates NBC. CHSN is dealing with the Comcast Cable programming division, whose objectives often do not align with the NBC.
Anyway, the nightmare is over and the games are about to come back. Of course, given the teams, which opens up the possibility of many other nightmares.