This week NBC Sports Chicago posted a warning that it could go dark on October 1, 2019 on Dish and AT&T. For cord cutters, this means you may soon lose NBC Sports Chicago if you use Dish, DIRECTV, AT&T TV NOW, Sling TV, U-verse, and more.
A Dish spokesperson sent Cord Cutters News the following statement: “Our goal is to keep NBC Sports Chicago available to our customers at a reasonable cost. We are unsure why NBC Sports Chicago has decided to involve customers in the contract negotiation process, at a point when there is still time for the two parties to reach a mutually beneficial deal.”
Update: AT&T sent Cord Cutters News this statement:
“As NBC Sports Chicago has publicly stated, our distribution agreement with them expires at the end of this month. We are currently negotiating a renewal and hope to prevent any interruption to any games some of our customers may care about. We remain on the side of consumer choice and value, and our negotiations reflect that. Consumers have made clear they want more choice over the channels they pay to receive in their homes. Our goal is to offer Blackhawks and Bulls games to anyone who wants them most at a value that makes sense to our customers overall. We cannot agree to exorbitant deals that do a disservice to our customers, especially when the Cubs are now launching another expensive network on their own. We appreciate our customers’ patience while we work this out.”
The good news for cord cutters is that fuboTV, Hulu, PlayStation Vue, and YouTube TV will all still have NBC Sports Chicago if you need to switch. Dish and DIRECTV customers stuck in a contract will have fewer options to easily find a service that offers these channels.
Now it is important to remember that NBC Sports Chicago has a different contract from the other NBC Sports Regional Sports Networks. Just because NBC Sports Chicago could go dark does not mean that other NBC Sports RSNs will too. NBC Sports Chicago is jointly owned by the Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox, meaning its contract is separate from other RSNs.
Cord Cutters News has reached out to Dish for comment and will update this story as we learn more. This is breaking news, we will update this story shortly.
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