Bulls, Blackhawks, White Sox to Air Games for Free Starting in October
The three teams have partnered with Standard Media Group, which is licensing their games to Chicagoans through WJYS TV.
Broadcasting arrangements for the Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls, and Chicago White Sox are coming more clearly into focus. The three teams will no longer be partnered with NBC Sports Chicago after the conclusion of the 2024 MLB season, and this fall Blackhawks and Bulls games will shift to a new channel dubbed “Chicago Sports Network.” On Monday, CHSN announced it had partnered with Millennial Telecommunications’ WJYS TV to broadcast games to viewers in the Chicagoland area over the air (OTA).
Key Details:
- Blackhawks and Bulls games will be available on channels 62.2 and 62.3 for Chicago viewers.
- The channel will launch on Oct. 1, days after NBC Sports Chicago shuts down.
- DIRECTV is reportedly near a deal to distribute the channel to its subscribers as well.
Chicago Sports Network is the result of a partnership between the Blackhawks, Bulls, White Sox, and Standard Media Group, a channel-owning company that controls stations in several midwestern states. According to a press release, Chicago Sports Network’s programming will be available to watch locally on channels 62.2 and 62.3 with nothing more than an antenna.
“Fan-first has been our north star,” Chicago Sports Network president Jason Coyle said. “We are making our content available on the platforms that our fans can watch. For those households who, for whatever reason, choose over-the-air as their primary viewing platform, they now have an opportunity to see the games and build even stronger connections with the teams and personalities they love.”
CHSN will be available starting on Oct. 1 to Chicago-area fans, the day after NBC Sports Chicago shuts down on Sept. 30. The Chicago White Sox wrap up their regular season on Sept. 29 on NBC Sports Chicago before heading to CHSN for the 2025 season.
Fans will be able to watch all Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox games not appearing on nationally broadcast channels or streamers like ESPN, Fox, TNT, Apple TV+, or Roku Channel on CHSN. Select preseason games and playoff matchups will also be available on the channel.
In addition to OTA viewing options, pay-TV customers will have the chance to watch CHSN as part of their subscription. The Chicago Sun-Times was the first to report that CHSN is negotiating a carriage deal with DIRECTV to be offered for its satellite and internet customers, as well as DIRECTV STREAM and AT&T U-Verse subscribers.
The report from the Sun-Times also indicates that other distribution agreements are likely to be finalized before the official Oct. 1 launch of CHSN. It estimates that Comcast’s Xfinity TV service is present in roughly half of Chicago households, but that could be a tough agreement to hammer out. Comcast allowed Bally Sports regional sports networks to go dark for its cable customers as it insisted that the channels be moved to a more expensive tier of service in its carriage negotiations with Diamond Sports Group this spring.
A return to OTA channels may seem retro, but more and more sports teams are adopting the option as they see viewership for expensive cable sports channels decline and customers looking for less expensive ways to watch TV. The New Orleans Pelicans recently struck a deal to play their in-market games on broadcast channels as well.
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