What led to Chicago Sports Network-Comcast deal? Here are four possibilities
What made Comcast, the dominant TV provider in the area, agree to end its blackout of CHSN after more than eight months? It certainly wasn’t the teams’ play.
chicago.suntimes.com
I am an Xfinity subscriber. I was channel surfing last night and noticed that the channel reserved for the now defunct NBC Sports Chicago (which for months had a graphic letting viewers know the channel no longer existed) was showing the Royals vs. White Sox game.
CHSN and Xfinity finally came to agreement and coverage began yesterday.
However, you need to subscribe to Xfinity's Ultimate Package. This is in contrast to the Premium Package which carries the Cubs' Marquee Network. The Ultimate Package is $20 more.
The other downsides that I have heard about:
The channel can no longer be access through the over the air digital channels that were set up in Chicago, Rockford, and Peoria. Viewers that could access the channel in that manner are upset that they now have to pay extra to watch bad teams. I did try to hook up a very expensive antenna to one of my TV's here in Champaign but could not get any signal from any of the assigned digital channels.
Other cable carriers and various streaming services such as YouTubeTV and Hulu aren't carrying the channel yet. It appears that if you want streaming, you either pay $20 a month for one team or $30 for all teams.
