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Starting Tuesday, the Blackhawks, Bulls and White Sox will have a new TV home — but many in Chicago won’t be able to see it.
Here’s what to know about the Chicago Sports Network.
So what’s happening — and why now?
The Chicago Sports Network — a joint venture among the three teams and Nashville-based Standard Media — is supplanting NBC Sports Chicago, the 20-year-old regional sports network whose broadcast rights expired after the White Sox season.
NBC Sports Chicago, founded as Comcast SportsNet in 2004, was a partnership between the cable giant and the Cubs, Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls. A ratings and revenue winner for most of its run, it covered Cubs and Sox World Series championships, three Blackhawks Stanley Cups and several Bulls playoff appearances.
But the Cubs broke off to form the Marquee Sports Network in 2020 and regional sports networks, long the cash cow of pay TV, have struggled financially in recent years as cord-cutting takes its toll on the cable bundle.
Enter CHSN.
How to watch
The 24/7 regional sports network will air for DirecTV subscribers across a five-state footprint, including Illinois, Iowa and portions of Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan.
“We have always prided ourselves on being a sports leader and intend to remain at the forefront,” said Rob Thun, chief content officer for DirecTV, in a news release.
CHSN will be included in the 125-plus-channel Choice Package on DirecTV starting Tuesday, which costs $74.99 per month. DirecTV has about 300,000 subscribers in the Chicago area. DirecTV subscribers can find CHSN on Channel 665 and for U-verse, it’s channels 1741 (HD)/741 (SD) — the same ones that NBC Sports Chicago previously held.
If you don’t have DirecTV, it’s time to break out the TV antenna. CHSN struck a deal with WJYS-Ch. 62, a full-powered UHF TV station licensed to Hammond that broadcasts from Willis Tower. The main channel is 24/7 religious programming, while its two digital subchannels air shopping networks. But come Tuesday, those two digital subchannels — 62.2 and 62.3 — will carry the Chicago Sports Network in high definition to anyone who can 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.
CHSN has yet to secure a carriage deal with Comcast, the largest pay-TV platform in the market with nearly 1 million subscribers and the former partner with NBC Sports Chicago.
Jason Coyle, president of the Chicago Sports Network, expects more pay-TV distributors to come on board in the months ahead.
“It comes down to reaching fans to the full extent of our rights geographically and providing them the network on as many platforms as we possibly can,” he said.
What else will be new?
CHSN is completing an atrium studio at the United Center where fans will be able to interact with the live Blackhawks and Bulls game broadcasts. A studio for White Sox games at Guaranteed Rate Field is also in the works for next season, Coyle said.
The Bulls and Hawks will share a studio based in the United Center’s East Atrium in the space that previously had been used by Stadium for shows such as “The Rally.”
“That’s a new model that really I haven’t done before,” analyst Kendall Gill said of the Bulls show he’ll be a part of, “but I’m excited to see what it’s like. … Maybe a celebrity with local ties, or if (Bears quarterback) Caleb Williams perhaps came to the game, maybe he sits in the third seat for a segment or two, things like that.
“So you get a different perspective from people from different sports.”
CHSN plans to broadcast more than 300 games this season as it builds its distribution partners and associated local sports programming to fill out the schedule.
What it means for the Blackhawks
CHSN is scheduled to launch Tuesday with a Hawks preseason game at the Minnesota Wild, along with the Friday and Saturday games on the road against the Wild and St. Louis Blues, respectively.
The Hawks open the regular season Oct. 8 on the road against the newly formed Utah Hockey Club — but that will be televised nationally on ESPN. Their next game, Oct. 11 against the Jets in Winnipeg, Manitoba, will air on CHSN.
CHSN will air 69 regular-season games.; any updates to the TV schedule will post on CHSN.com.
Veteran NHL announcer Rick Ball and analyst Darren Pang will handle the Blackhawks telecasts.
For Hawks pre- and postgame shows, Pat Boyle, a Chicago sportscaster for two decades, will be joined by analyst Tony Granato, a former NHL player and coach, and studio contributor and backup analyst Caley Chelios, daughter of Hawks legend Chris Chelios.
What it means for the Bulls
The full slate of Bulls games airing on CHSN has not yet been announced.
Only five games in the 2024-25 season will air nationally: The Nov. 7 home game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Nov. 23 home matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies and April 6 contest at the Charlotte Hornets will be broadcast on NBA TV. The Nov. 20 matchup at the Bucks and Jan. 17 game at the Hornets will be broadcast on ESPN.
Adam Amin and Stacey King will call Bulls games for the new network.
The Bulls’ pre-, halftime and postgame shows will include host Jason Goff, analyst Kendall Gill and sideline reporter and insider K.C. Johnson, a former Bulls beat reporter for the Tribune. Former Bull Will Perdue, who served as studio analyst for NBC Sports Chicago, won’t resume in that role for CHSN.
What it means for the White Sox
There’s been no word on a studio team yet for CHSN — Chuck Garfien and Ozzie Guillén had those roles for NBC Sports Chicago.
Steve Stone and John Schriffen will both be back in the broadcast booth. Because who wouldn’t want to see what the Sox have in store as their encore for their worst season ever.