The White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks are moving closer to completing a deal that would move their games to multiplatform sports network Stadium this fall, and an announcement could come this week, the Sun-Times has learned.
The teams’ contract with rights holder NBC Sports Chicago expires in October, though there’s a possibility that the sides could agree to a six-month extension, in which case Stadium would take over when the Sox begin play next year.
“The teams continue to have discussions and conversations about future broadcast plans and will have an announcement about those plans when appropriate,” White Sox senior vice president of communications Scott Reifert said.
Stadium, whose offices and studio are in the United Center, would convert into a regional sports network and seek distribution on pay-TV providers. It has a streaming platform already in place and conceivably could offer a direct-to-consumer service from its app. The teams, led by Bulls and Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, also are seeking over-the-air partners to carry the games.
It isn’t a great time to start an RSN. Cable viewership is declining, and streaming usage is rising. Changing RSNs won’t solve that problem, and it could create one by trying to gain carriage on cable and satellite providers such as Comcast and DirecTV.
Diamond Sports Group, which operates 19 Bally Sports-branded networks, has been in bankruptcy court for more than a year and finally appears to be emerging with a reorganization plan. Major League Baseball is producing games for the Diamondbacks, Padres and Rockies, who lost their RSNs. And the Cubs’ Marquee Sports Network didn’t send broadcasters to most of its spring-training games to cut costs.
Reinsdorf acquired majority control of Stadium last spring. He had launched the platform in 2017 with Sinclair Broadcast Group, which later used Stadium to supply the Bally networks, then under Sinclair’s purview, with nongame programming. When Sinclair offloaded the RSNs to Diamond, it didn’t need Stadium anymore.
The staffs at NBCSCH and Stadium figure to be affected by the move. Some personnel at NBCSCH have been there through several iterations of the network and conceivably could shift to Stadium.
NBCSCH would be the latest RSN to leave NBC’s stable of networks. NBC Sports Northwest shut down when its lone tenant, the NBA’s Trail Blazers, went with a different partner. NBC Sports Washington became Monumental Sports Network when Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis bought NBCUniversal’s stake in the network and rebranded it.
Reinsdorf appears to be following his lead.