Comcast Carriage Disputes Could Spur Merger Between Marquee, Chicago Sports Network
Remember when NBC Sports Chicago was home to the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks? Sounds like that Rally House commercial. Even though the Cubs’ fractured broadcast agreement saw them carried by roughly 32 different local stations over the five-year period following WGN’s pivot away from sports, they anchored the coverage for a network that was available throughout the Chicagoland area and most of the team’s MLB-defined regional territory. Seeking to have the whole pie instead of just a piece, the Cubs formed Marquee Sports Network and got it on the air just in time for spring training in…2020.
As poor as their timing was on that front, it wasn’t nearly as bad as launching a new regional sports network after the bubble had already burst for that industry. Not only were they unable to secure anything approaching the Dodgers’ 25-year, $8.35 billion deal through SportsNet LA, but they couldn’t avoid the carriage issues that plagued that monster contract. Years before they launched Marquee, the Cubs knew they needed to secure agreements with cable, satellite, and streaming services in order to provide access to as many fans as possible.
Then came protracted battles with Comcast, YouTube TV, and others as Marquee stumbled out of the gate and saw the MLB season halted shortly after launch. Though they eventually worked out a deal with the cable giant that services more Cubs fans than any other platform, that agreement has since expired and a new one remains in limbo as Sinclair is also trying to work out new agreements for its local stations.
Marquee is not alone on that front, as the startup Chicago Sports Network has also been unable to secure a deal with Comcast. The network wants to be included in lower subscription tiers because that means pulling in more carriage fees, but Comcast insists on putting CSN at a premium tier. The two entities are reportedly haggling over the amount of those carriage fees as well.
According to Puck’s John Ourand (subscription required) via Awful Announcing (free), the solution might be for the two Chicago networks to join forces to improve their negotiating clout.
“Chatter about a potential merger between Marquee and CSN has only grown louder in recent weeks,” Ourand wrote. “Sinclair, which owns a minority stake in Marquee, has been trying to work out a deal with Comcast to replace the contract that expired at the end of baseball season. At the same time, Sinclair is negotiating a new Comcast deal for its local TV stations.”
It would be pretty wild to see a reunion between all these teams five years after the dissolution of their fraught marriage, and I’m not yet sure what would be best for Chicago sports fans. We ditched Xfinity in favor of YouTube TV a while back and now I just subscribe to Marquee’s app — which is just a terrible user experience — during the season. A merger would really only be good for those who remain with some form of Comcast, but having access to all the teams also means paying more for your service on a monthly basis.
I’m skeptical of a merger coming to fruition, but I’m even more skeptical of the resultant product should they be successful in leveraging a new deal with Comcast. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.