White Sox debut on CHSN: Will fans watch?
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Chicago White Sox color analyst Steve Stone before a 2019 game. Photo: Ron Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty Images
The White Sox play the Texas Rangers today for their official Spring Training opener, which also marks the team's first broadcast on the new Chicago Sports Network.
The big picture: Last year, the team set major league records for futility while fans wore paper bags over their heads and largely stayed away from the ballpark.
- The current outlook for this year's team isn't much better. The Sox traded away their star pitcher and failed to add any free agents beyond journeymen and roster fillers.
The latest: Today starts a new era for Sox broadcasts on the fledgling network, which has failed to secure a carriage deal with Comcast, shutting out at least a million viewers.
- CHSN, owned by the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families, launched at the end of last year's baseball season, replacing the defunct NBC Sports Chicago to air White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks games.
The intrigue: Two recent polls show that fans are not watching the new network.
- A Sun-Times reader poll found that an overwhelming majority of fans haven't watched a single Bulls or Blackhawks game this year.
- A recent analysis of NBA ratings showed the Bulls have lost 63% of their viewership year over year, the most in the entire league.
Reality check: Both the Blackhawks and the Bulls have had terrible seasons, so fed-up fans may not be inclined to support losing teams.
- Attendance at Bulls games has dropped, too.
Yes, but: These franchises have had losing seasons before.
State of play: It's not unexpected for a new television network to need time to find its footing. But after five months, the channel is still not a part of Comcast or YouTube TV packages, and that doesn't look to change anytime soon.
- CHSN offers the channel free to digital antenna users and has a carriage deal with DirecTV. It also has its own subscription streaming services ($19.99 a month for one team).
- CHSN declined to give an update on Xfinity negotiations and wouldn't give Axios their subscriber numbers for their streaming service.
Zoom in: The Sox are making moves to strengthen their broadcast after much criticism last year. They revamped their reporting team to include Brooke Fletcher and Connor McKnight while retaining legendary color commentator Steve Stone.
- That may not matter if fans can't get, or won't search for the channel.
The bottom line: The White Sox may lose more than just a record amount of baseball games. They are in jeopardy of losing their fanbase, too.