News Article: CSN viewership down 78% this season for the Hawks

[Malagahawks]

As the reigning chump RSN, CSN dopped the ball big time this season:

NHL local audiences lower in U.S.; Comcast distribution means different narratives for Blackhawks, Avalanche

Many U.S.-based NHL clubs saw local game audiences drop this season, whether that be RSN or over-the-air distribution, and the sharpest drops came in two of the three biggest markets in the country.

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

The sharpest drops came in two of the three biggest markets in the country. The Blackhawks had the biggest decline, down 78% this season on the team’s new RSN, Chicago Sports Network (co-owned alongside the Bulls and White Sox). But leaving NBC Sports Chicago for an RSN that has not gotten distribution with Comcast in the market meant a loss of just over 40,000 homes per game this season for the Blackhawks.

Discuss

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

Viewership is going to go down when no major cable company carries your channel.

 

[Malagahawks]

Viewership is going to go down when no major cable company carries your channel.

That right there is pretty much the problem, their inability to partner with a major carrier.

 

[Pez68]

As the reigning chump RSN, CSN dopped the ball big time this season:

NHL local audiences lower in U.S.; Comcast distribution means different narratives for Blackhawks, Avalanche

Many U.S.-based NHL clubs saw local game audiences drop this season, whether that be RSN or over-the-air distribution, and the sharpest drops came in two of the three biggest markets in the country.

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

The sharpest drops came in two of the three biggest markets in the country. The Blackhawks had the biggest decline, down 78% this season on the team’s new RSN, Chicago Sports Network (co-owned alongside the Bulls and White Sox). But leaving NBC Sports Chicago for an RSN that has not gotten distribution with Comcast in the market meant a loss of just over 40,000 homes per game this season for the Blackhawks.

Discuss

Who could have seen this coming? Rich people are so f***ing stupid. Every day just reinforces this opinion.

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

In the least surprising result of all time - when you make it practically impossible to watch games - viewership will go down.

 

[ColbyChaos]

And not a single person was surprised. Imagine trying to force people to swap their service providers to the 2 or so services that actually made a contract with CHSN and being surprised a majority of people would not bother doing that lol.

In no universe was a rebuilding hawks team and two hopeless Reinsdorf teams worth $30 a month or $350 for the entire year, HBO max costs either 1/3rd of that or half of CHSNs price depending on the plan you have.

Disney+ Hulu, ESPN, and HBO max bundled together cost the same as a subscription for CHSN lmao

I ended up just buying an antenna to watch them over the air but it’s ridiculous when you consider what Utah sports fans get with their streaming services. Hell Dallas and Anaheim fans get to watch their teams for god damn free on Victory+

Yet the hawks want to overcharge and under deliver

 

[ChiHawks10]

And not a single person was surprised. Imagine trying to force people to swap their service providers to the 2 or so services that actually made a contract with CHSN and being surprised a majority of people would not bother doing that lol.

In no universe was a rebuilding hawks team and two hopeless Reinsdorf teams worth $30 a month or $350 for the entire year, HBO max costs either 1/3rd of that or half of CHSNs price depending on the plan you have.

Disney+ Hulu, ESPN, and HBO max bundled together cost the same as a subscription for CHSN lmao

I ended up just buying an antenna to watch them over the air but it’s ridiculous when you consider what Utah sports fans get with their streaming services. Hell Dallas and Anaheim fans get to watch their teams for god damn free on Victory+

Yet the hawks want to overcharge and under deliver

This is more about Reinsdorf than anyone with the Hawks. His people run it. It was his idea. It's his baby. He's the problem. Everything he touches dies. The piece of shit can't die soon enough.

 

[CallMeShaft]

One thing I don't get is, if the hangup with offering a free stream of CHSN is not trying to piss off companies like Directv/Att, why not do the next best thing and just make it incredibly easy to get free trials to the app?

If I was in charge of CHSN, I'd be partnering up with local businesses to try to give free trials to as many people in the Chicagoland area as possible. Put ads with a promo code for the app on Jewel receipts. Offer them to pizza places where they staple a small flyer to the top of your pizza box with a promo code. Think about it, you get a pizza from your local establishment and you see the Hawks, Bulls, and Sox logo on a piece of paper offering you the ability to watch those teams play for the next couple weeks for free. Pizza and sports go pretty damn well together.

It's bad enough the app is shit and it costs too much, but if people don't see these games on their TV Guide, then they'll straight up forget about them. They desperately need to rethink how they market these broadcasts going forward, because novice fans aren't going out of their way for it.

 

[CallMeShaft]

“At the end of the day, the availability of our games on TV this past season was unacceptable — and our fans deserve better,” Wirtz said. “I am focused on finding potential solutions for next season with our partners at CHSN. We are about to celebrate 100 years of hockey as well as usher in the next generation on the ice. I am committed to ensuring our fans can see that.”

 

[Pez68]

Well maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to hitch your cart to the Reinsdorf horse.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

start with the actual website and fix it then figure out how to drive conversion rates higher with your core fanbase, whether that is free trials on the back of tickets or a free game of the week, anything to drive people to actually make the accounts...I didn't watch until March because the website is dogshit and I had to go through fubo for the trial

 

[ColbyChaos]

Can’t be stated enough that deciding on teaming up with a guy who was too cheap to even keep the greatest and most popular basketball player of all time was a terrible choice before it even started. Deserve any failure that comes with this for teaming with that loser.

If price plans were dropped by half they probably don’t have the viewership issues

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Go back in time a year ago, and borderline all of us morons knew that this was going to go poorly, and yet I don't think any of us were expecting them to bungle the launch this badly.

Thread 'Hawks, Bulls, & Sox new channel is Chicago Sports Network (CHSN)'

Apr 16, 2024

Oh boy...

https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports...bc-sports-chicago-stadium-rsn-jerry-reinsdorf

As of yet a streaming-only service, as they don't have any agreements with cable providers yet.

This seems like a ball and chain to the Sox and Bulls already, but hopefully the Hawks don't voluntarily join in, too.

• No Fun Shogun
• Replies: 886
• Forum: Chicago Blackhawks

• 
• 

Dumbass got suckered into an obviously losing product with loser business partners because he didn't want to make things awkward around the UC, and he has no plan in place to get out of it or be meaningfully on the air for most of the fanbase.

 

[Pez68]

Go back in time a year ago, and borderline all of us morons knew that this was going to go poorly, and yet I don't think any of us were expecting them to bungle the launch this badly.

Thread 'Hawks, Bulls, & Sox new channel is Chicago Sports Network (CHSN)'

Apr 16, 2024

Oh boy...

https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports...bc-sports-chicago-stadium-rsn-jerry-reinsdorf

As of yet a streaming-only service, as they don't have any agreements with cable providers yet.

This seems like a ball and chain to the Sox and Bulls already, but hopefully the Hawks don't voluntarily join in, too.

• No Fun Shogun
• Replies: 886
• Forum: Chicago Blackhawks

• 
• 

Dumbass got suckered into an obviously losing product with loser business partners because he didn't want to make things awkward around the UC, and he has no plan in place to get out of it or be meaningfully on the air for most of the fanbase.

Most of us called this as soon as we saw they were partnering with Reinsdorf.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

I unironically think that the Blackhawks should’ve just tried to be junior partners on Marquee, and that’s the channel that airs garbage nonsense other than Cubs broadcasts (or including Cubs broadcasts, to present the opinion of Sox fans). Get in front of at least some eyeballs.

 

[Fortyfives]

 

[Blackhawks]

Oh what a surprise, you ice a trash team with a trash ownership/management and wonder why viewership goes down

Even those people watching these games were using the games as background sound while browsing their phones…

 

[Hakoon]

Who gives a rat's ass about the White Sox or the Bulls?

 

[TLEH]

All I’ll say is the fact that nobody major has been fired over a debacle this bad does make me worry about the inner workings of this as a business. Regardless as long as it doesn’t mean internal cap or interference then I won’t care.

 

[hockeydoug]

Pretty sure Danny is practicing guitar more than getting hands on with the business. None of this makes enough sense otherwise.

From the platform mess, to KD's obsession for chasing the record for most professional games as gm without an actual head coach to some of the mishaps off the ice, I just can't imagine he's very dialed in.

At least he spends. Could be much much worse.

here's to hoping none of this overspills into the rebuild and that he doesn't wake up one day and decide to go "jerry Jones" with the franchise.

 

[jaysoneil]

PITA this year for sure, but next year they're going to market the piss out of 100 years. It'll be a night and day difference.

There's no way they botch this opportunity to cash in some revenue and rejuvenate the fanbase.

 

[SavBigMoneyAtBedards]

To nobody's surprise, the CHSN rollout was a disaster.