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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area |
|
| Network | NBC Sports Regional Networks |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Picture format | 1080i (HDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| Sister channels | |
| History | |
| Launched | October 1, 2004; 21 years ago (2004-10-01) |
| Replaced | Fox Sports Net Chicago (de facto) |
| Closed | September 30, 2024; 13 months ago (2024-09-30) |
| Replaced by | Chicago Sports Network (de facto) |
| Former names | Comcast SportsNet Chicago (2004–2017) |
NBC Sports Chicago (formerlyComcast SportsNet Chicago) was an Americanregional sports network that broadcast regional coverage of professional sports teams in theChicagometropolitan area, as well as college sports events and original sports-related news, discussion and entertainment programming. It was branded as part of theNBC Sports Regional Networks. The channel ceased operations on September 30, 2024.
NBC Sports Chicago was owned by a consortium ofComcast (which owns 25% through theNBC Sports Group unit ofNBCUniversal),Chicago Bulls andWhite Sox ownerJerry Reinsdorf (who owns a 50% majority interest), and theWirtz Corporation, owner of theChicago Blackhawks (which owns 25%). TheChicago Cubs, through theTribune Company and later the family ofJ. Joseph Ricketts, formerly owned a 20% stake in the network from its launch until the Cubs ended their broadcasts on the network after the end of the 2019 season, with that percentage distributed to the remaining partners after that point.
In May 2024, the Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox decided to move to a new network, namedChicago Sports Network, run byStandard Media Group, effective October 1, 2024 start of the fall sports season. After NBC Sports Chicago ended broadcasting operations, most of its channel positions, social media presences and existing followers, transferred to CHSN. Several NBCSN on-air personalities were hired by CHSN as well.[1][2]
The network's main studios and offices were located at 350 North Orleans Street, inside theRiver North Point Center in theNear North Side area. The channel was available on cable andfiber optic television providers in most ofIllinois, and throughout northwestIndiana,Iowa,Kenosha County, Wisconsin and southwestMichigan and nationwide onsatellite providerDirecTV.
In November 2003, Jerry Reinsdorf,Bill Wirtz, and theTribune Company decided to end their cable television agreements for the Bulls, White Sox, Cubs, and Blackhawks withFSN Chicago, stripping that network of broadcast rights to all of the professional sports teams in the Chicago area. All three team owners decided to enter into a partnership with Comcast to form a new regional sports network, to be namedComcast SportsNet Chicago, whose launch was formally announced on December 2.[3][4] CSN Chicago was created in order for the four teams to have editorial control over their broadcasts, although the network continued to share the rights to the Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls withWGN-TV (channel 9, which was owned by Tribune) and (until 2014)WCIU-TV (channel 26).
Comcast SportsNet Chicago launched on October 1, 2004. At that time, with the loss of all four teams from its lineup, FSN Chicago was effectively left with only events from some minor local andsemi-professional teams, national programming from Fox Sports Net, and Midwesternoutdoors programs on its schedule; many cable and satellite providers in northeastern Illinois and northwest Indiana also chose to replace FSN Chicago with CSN Chicago upon its launch.
AfterRainbow Media shut down FSN Chicago on June 23, 2006,[5] Comcast SportsNet Chicago acquired the regional cable television rights to broadcast sports events, discussion and entertainment programs intended for national distribution to the Fox Sports regional networks. The network subsequently relocated its operations into FSN Chicago's former studio facilities on Orleans Street (which NBC Sports Chicago now also shares with the offices of theChicago Sun-Times).
On April 2, 2007, the Tribune Company announced its intent to sell its shares in both Comcast SportsNet Chicago and the Chicago Cubs as part of the company's $8.2 billion purchase by real estate magnateSam Zell.[6]
After inheriting the team from father Bill Wirtz upon his death in September 2007, new Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz decided to lift his father's years-long ban on local televised coverage of the team's home games (which the elder Wirtz imposed as a means to sustain ticket sales).[7] On March 30, 2008, the Blackhawks announced a new broadcasting rights agreement. The team renewed CSN Chicago's broadcast rights (with the network carrying the bulk of the games), while local broadcasts were split between CSN Chicago and WGN-TV effective with the2008–09 season; all of the team's games (both home and away) would be televised in high definition (due to the NHL's broadcast contracts, WGN-TV was barred from carrying its share of Blackhawks telecasts on its former nationalsuperstation feedWGN America, although its game telecasts were available in Canada through the station's carriage as a superstation on domestic cable and satellite providers).[8]
Comcast SportsNet Chicago, along with the other Comcast SportsNet-branded networks, implemented a new network logo style (utilizing Comcast's then-universal corporate logo) and graphics package on October 1, 2008, coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the network's launch.
On January 5, 2009, the network premieredMonsters in the Morning, a weekday morning talk show hosted by formerWSCR radio hostMike North and Comcast SportsNet Chicago reporter and former Chicago BearDan Jiggetts. The program was cancelled in January 2010, due to problems involving the show, including the program's main sponsor, the now-defunct online sports channel ChicagoSportsWebio.com, being implicated in defrauding North, Jiggetts and others in amoney laundering scheme in June 2009;[9] North subsequently became the host ofMonsters and Money in the Morning, a short-lived program forCBS owned-and-operated stationWBBM-TV (channel 2), which briefly replaced that station's morning newscast.
On August 21, 2009, the Tribune Company sold its interests in the Chicago Cubs,Wrigley Field and 25% of Comcast SportsNet Chicago to the family ofTD Ameritrade founder J. Joseph Ricketts for $845 million.[10][11]
With Comcast's acquisition ofNBC Universal (owners ofNBC andTelemundo owned and operated duopoly stationsWMAQ-TV andWSNS-TV) in February 2011, Comcast SportsNet was also integrated into the new NBC Sports Group unit, culminating with the addition of thepeacock logo in September 2012 and an updated graphics package based on that introduced byNBC Sports for its NBC and national cable broadcasts in January 2013. The updated graphics were implemented on CSN's live game coverage and all studio shows, with the exception ofSportsNet Central.
In September 2012, Comcast SportsNet Chicago and its sister Comcast SportsNet outlets ceased carrying Fox Sports Networks-supplied programming, after failing to reach an agreement to continue carrying FSN's nationally distributed programs.[12]SportsNet Central would ultimately implement a new on-air look of its own and on April 14, 2014, in conjunction with that change, the program switched to the updated graphics package introduced three years earlier.
On October 2, 2017, the network was rebranded asNBC Sports Chicago, as part of a larger rebranding of the Comcast SportsNet networks under the NBC Sports brand.[13]
On January 2, 2019, the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks agreed to an exclusive five-year deal with NBC Sports Chicago beginning in the fall of 2019, ending their broadcasts on WGN-TV. The Cubs, with the 2020 launch of the team-ownedMarquee Sports Network, moved their games to that cable channel after 15 years with the network ending with the 2019 season.[14][15][16][17][18]
In April 2019, the network acquired regional rights to theChicago Red Stars of theNational Women's Soccer League.[19]
On October 1, 2019Dish dropped NBC Sports Chicago from both its satellite service and its streaming serviceSling.[20]
In July 2021, it was announced that theSinclair Broadcast Group (part owner ofMarquee Sports Network and owners of theBally Sports Regional Networks) was considering buying the entire NBC Sports Regional Networks unit from Comcast.[21] The sale never occurred.
In May 2024, the Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox decided to move to a new network, namedChicago Sports Network, run byStandard Media Group, when the five-year deal that was signed in 2019 to expire on September 30, 2024.[22]
On September 30, 2024, NBC Sports Chicago ceased operations at 11:59 p.m., after airing reruns of various special programs (including Chicago's past championship parades, the premieres ofSportsnite andChicago Tribune Live, and the network's 20th anniversary special in repetition). The network went dark following a commercial forThe Nature Conservancy before putting up a placeholder for minutes saying that the channel "is no longer in service". The former network was ultimately replaced by the Chicago Sports Network several minutes later.[23]
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Through its co-ownership by the owners of each of the three teams, NBC Sports Chicago held the regional cable television rights to air a majority of games involving theChicago White Sox Major League Baseball club, theNBA'sChicago Bulls and theNHL's Chicago Blackhawks until October 1, 2024 when the teams moved games to Chicago Sports Network (CHSN), which they also co-owned.[24]
The channel aired a postgame show after every Chicago Bears game named "Football Aftershow" due to Marquee being the official cable partner of the Chicago Bears.[25]
The channel had held the broadcast rights to games of the now-defunctChicago Rush of theArena Football League.
On April 13, 2010, then-named CSN Chicago announced that it had signed a contract with Chicago Fire S.C. to broadcast at least eight of the franchise's matches for the2010 season. This agreement continued for the 2011 and 2012 seasons as well. On January 26, 2015, the network signed a three-year contract with the team to become its exclusive local television broadcaster, ending the team's previous two-year deal with WPWR-TV.[26] In 2018, the Chicago Fire left the channel for ESPN+.[27]
The network also carried collegiate sports events includingLoyola Chicago men’s and women’s basketball and a package ofMissouri Valley Conference basketball games, including the first round and quarterfinals ofArch Madness, syndicated byBally Sports Midwest. Prior to the termination of Comcast SportsNet's groupwide programming agreement with Fox Sports Networks, CSN Chicago additionally broadcast FSN's national programming following the shutdown of FSN Chicago, notably including the network's college sports coverage, such asAtlantic Coast Conference men's and women's basketball games (on Sundays), men's basketball games from thePac-12 Conference (on various nights) andcollege football games from theBig 12 Conference and Pac-12 Conference (on Saturdays during the fall).
From 2016-2019, CSN Chicago obtained the exclusive rights to championship games for theIowa High School Athletic Association in football, basketball and wrestling, replacing the previous model of a statewide broadcast network in Iowa of stations in each market.[28]
NBC Sports Chicago's flagship program wasSportsNet Central, a nightly sports news program featuring live reports and coverage on the Chicago area's major sports teams as well as game highlights from local and national teams. The program also featured special regular segments such as "Luke-A-Likes," a popular segment hosted by Luke Stuckmeyer on nights when he hosted the program before his October 2019 departure. It was a viewer-voting segment featuring photos submitted by viewers claiming toresemble a particular sports figure) and the "Chicago Sports Trivia Question" (abumper segment shown before and after a commercial break featuring trivia questions related to Chicago sports.
The network also carries team magazine and coaches shows focusing on the Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox, as well as the Northern Illinois University and Illinois State University football and basketball teams. It continued to carry unofficial Cubs coverage with the start of the 2020 MLB season.
Since the network launched in 2004, NBC Sports Chicago has hosted theCSN Chicago Sports Awards, an annual award show to raise money for theMarch of Dimes (this program dates back to 1987, when the children's charity started the benefit in partnership with SportsChannel Chicago, the later FSN Chicago). The honorees included top athletes from Chicago's professional sports teams, who were chosen based on their contributions to their teams and the Chicago community. To date, the "CSN Chicago Sports Awards" has raised over $6 million for the March of Dimes.
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NBC Sports Chicago Plus was the secondary feed used to resolve scheduling conflicts when two teams played at the same time, with a tertiary network,NBC Sports Chicago Plus 2', activated occasionally when it had all four teams in play. The extra channels also carried alternate content from NBC Sports or formerly, FSN. The channel originated as a looping help service for Comcast services otherwise, and was originally allocated for the defunct HD-only channelMOJO HD. Beforedigital cable services were expanded, the Plus channels aired part-time, temporarily replacing networks such asCLTV orC-SPAN2 when necessary.
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