NBC Sports Chicago (formerly Comcast SportsNet Chicago) was an American

regional sports network A regional sports network (RSN) in the United States and Canada is a television channel that presents sports programming to a local media market or geographical region. Such channels often focus on one or a few teams who currently play in Major L ...

that broadcast regional coverage of professional sports teams in the

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

, as well as college sports events and original sports-related news, discussion and entertainment programming. It was branded as part of the NBC Sports Regional Networks. The channel ceased operations on September 30, 2024. NBC Sports Chicago was owned by a consortium of

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

(which owns 25% through the NBC Sports Group unit of

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16 ...

and White Sox owner

Jerry Reinsdorf Jerry Michael Reinsdorf (born February 25, 1936) is an American sports executive and businessman who is the owner of the NBA's Chicago Bulls and MLB's Chicago White Sox. He started his professional life as a tax attorney with the Internal Re ...

(who owns a 50% majority interest), and the Wirtz Corporation, owner of the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (N ...

(which owns 25%). The

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

, through the

Tribune Company Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...

and later the family of J. Joseph Ricketts, formerly owned a 20% stake in the network from its launch until the Cubs ended their broadcasts on the network after the end of the 2019 season, with that percentage distributed to the remaining partners after that point. In May 2024, the Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox decided to move to a new network, named Chicago Sports Network, run by Standard Media Group, effective October 1, 2024 start of the fall sports season. After NBC Sports Chicago ended broadcasting operations, most of its channel positions, social media presences and existing followers, transferred to CHSN. Several NBCSN on-air personalities were hired by CHSN as well. The network's main studios and offices were located at 350 North Orleans Street, inside the River North Point Center in the Near North Side area. The channel was available on cable and

fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

television providers in most of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, and throughout northwest

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

Kenosha County, Wisconsin Kenosha County () is located in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 169,151, and was estimated to be 168,754 in 2024, making it the eighth-most populous county in Wisconsin. Its c ...

and southwest

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and nationwide on

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

provider

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

History

In November 2003, Jerry Reinsdorf, Bill Wirtz, and the

decided to end their cable television agreements for the Bulls, White Sox, Cubs, and Blackhawks with

FSN Chicago Fox Sports Net Chicago (often branded as FSN Chicago) was an American regional sports network that was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and was owned by Cablevision for most of its history (from 1987 to 2005). News Corporation acquired a minori ...

, stripping that network of broadcast rights to all of the professional sports teams in the Chicago area. All three team owners decided to enter into a partnership with Comcast to form a new regional sports network, to be named Comcast SportsNet Chicago, whose launch was formally announced on December 2. CSN Chicago was created in order for the four teams to have editorial control over their broadcasts, although the network continued to share the rights to the Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls with

WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is sister station, sister to the company ...

(channel 9, which was owned by Tribune) and (until 2014) WCIU-TV (channel 26). Comcast SportsNet Chicago launched on October 1, 2004. At that time, with the loss of all four teams from its lineup, FSN Chicago was effectively left with only events from some minor local and

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a cons ...

teams, national programming from Fox Sports Net, and Midwestern outdoors programs on its schedule; many cable and satellite providers in northeastern Illinois and northwest Indiana also chose to replace FSN Chicago with CSN Chicago upon its launch. After Rainbow Media shut down FSN Chicago on June 23, 2006, Comcast SportsNet Chicago acquired the regional cable television rights to broadcast sports events, discussion and entertainment programs intended for national distribution to the Fox Sports regional networks. The network subsequently relocated its operations into FSN Chicago's former studio facilities on Orleans Street (which NBC Sports Chicago now also shares with the offices of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

''). On April 2, 2007, the Tribune Company announced its intent to sell its shares in both Comcast SportsNet Chicago and the Chicago Cubs as part of the company's $8.2 billion purchase by real estate magnate Sam Zell. After inheriting the team from father Bill Wirtz upon his death in September 2007, new Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz decided to lift his father's years-long ban on local televised coverage of the team's home games (which the elder Wirtz imposed as a means to sustain ticket sales). On March 30, 2008, the Blackhawks announced a new broadcasting rights agreement. The team renewed CSN Chicago's broadcast rights (with the network carrying the bulk of the games), while local broadcasts were split between CSN Chicago and WGN-TV effective with the 2008–09 season; all of the team's games (both home and away) would be televised in high definition (due to the NHL's broadcast contracts, WGN-TV was barred from carrying its share of Blackhawks telecasts on its former national

superstation ''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a broadcast television sign ...

feed WGN America, although its game telecasts were available in Canada through the station's carriage as a superstation on domestic cable and satellite providers). Comcast SportsNet Chicago, along with the other Comcast SportsNet-branded networks, implemented a new network logo style (utilizing Comcast's then-universal corporate logo) and graphics package on October 1, 2008, coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the network's launch. On January 5, 2009, the network premiered ''Monsters in the Morning'', a weekday morning talk show hosted by former

WSCR WSCR (670 AM radio, AM) – branded 670 The Score – is a Commercial radio, commercial sports radio station, licensed to Chicago, Illinois, which serves the Chicago metropolitan area. Owned by Audacy, Inc., WSCR is a clear-channel station wit ...

radio host

Mike North Mike North (born May 1, 1951) is an American radio sports personality, formerly working for Clear Channel Communications as a cohost with Andy Furman on ''Fox Sports Daybreak'' Mon-Friday from 5am-8am CST on their Fox Sports Radio subsidiary, un ...

and Comcast SportsNet Chicago reporter and former Chicago Bear Dan Jiggetts. The program was cancelled in January 2010, due to problems involving the show, including the program's main sponsor, the now-defunct online sports channel ChicagoSportsWebio.com, being implicated in defrauding North, Jiggetts and others in a

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

scheme in June 2009; North subsequently became the host of ''Monsters and Money in the Morning'', a short-lived program for CBS owned-and-operated station WBBM-TV (channel 2), which briefly replaced that station's morning newscast. On August 21, 2009, the Tribune Company sold its interests in the Chicago Cubs,

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a ballpark on the North Side, Chicago, North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charl ...

and 25% of Comcast SportsNet Chicago to the family of TD Ameritrade founder J. Joseph Ricketts for $845 million. CSNChicago

With Comcast's acquisition of

NBC Universal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and headquartered at 30 ...

(owners of NBC and

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

owned and operated duopoly stations WMAQ-TV and WSNS-TV) in February 2011, Comcast SportsNet was also integrated into the new NBC Sports Group unit, culminating with the addition of the peacock logo in September 2012 and an updated graphics package based on that introduced by

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

for its NBC and national cable broadcasts in January 2013. The updated graphics were implemented on CSN's live game coverage and all studio shows, with the exception of ''SportsNet Central''. In September 2012, Comcast SportsNet Chicago and its sister Comcast SportsNet outlets ceased carrying Fox Sports Networks-supplied programming, after failing to reach an agreement to continue carrying FSN's nationally distributed programs. ''SportsNet Central'' would ultimately implement a new on-air look of its own and on April 14, 2014, in conjunction with that change, the program switched to the updated graphics package introduced three years earlier. On October 2, 2017, the network was rebranded as NBC Sports Chicago, as part of a larger rebranding of the Comcast SportsNet networks under the NBC Sports brand. On January 2, 2019, the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks agreed to an exclusive five-year deal with NBC Sports Chicago beginning in the fall of 2019, ending their broadcasts on WGN-TV. The Cubs, with the 2020 launch of the team-owned

Marquee Sports Network Marquee Sports Network is a regional sports network operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group and the Chicago Cubs, launched on February 22, 2020. It replaced a trio of channels (cable channel NBC Sports Chicago and broadcast partners WLS-TV and WGN S ...

, moved their games to that cable channel after 15 years with the network ending with the 2019 season. In April 2019, the network acquired regional rights to the

Chicago Red Stars Chicago Stars Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in the Chicago metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league as the Chic ...

of the

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional Association football, soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system#Women's leagues, United States soccer league system (alongside the USL Supe ...

. On October 1, 2019 Dish dropped NBC Sports Chicago from both its satellite service and its streaming service Sling. In July 2021, it was announced that the

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb o ...

(part owner of

and owners of the Bally Sports Regional Networks) was considering buying the entire NBC Sports Regional Networks unit from Comcast. The sale never occurred. In May 2024, the Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox decided to move to a new network, named Chicago Sports Network, run by Standard Media Group, when the five-year deal that was signed in 2019 to expire on September 30, 2024. On September 30, 2024, NBC Sports Chicago ceased operations at 11:59 p.m., after airing reruns of various special programs (including Chicago's past championship parades, the premieres of ''Sportsnite'' and ''Chicago Tribune Live'', and the network's 20th anniversary special in repetition). The network went dark following a commercial for

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in ...

before putting up a placeholder for minutes saying that the channel "is no longer in service". The former network was ultimately replaced by the Chicago Sports Network several minutes later.

Programming

Sports coverage

Through its co-ownership by the owners of each of the three teams, NBC Sports Chicago held the regional cable television rights to air a majority of games involving the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

Major League Baseball club, the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

and the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

's Chicago Blackhawks until October 1, 2024 when the teams moved games to Chicago Sports Network (CHSN), which they also co-owned. The channel aired a postgame show after every Chicago Bears game named "Football Aftershow" due to Marquee being the official cable partner of the Chicago Bears. The channel had held the broadcast rights to games of the now-defunct Chicago Rush of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

. On April 13, 2010, then-named CSN Chicago announced that it had signed a contract with Chicago Fire S.C. to broadcast at least eight of the franchise's matches for the 2010 season. This agreement continued for the 2011 and 2012 seasons as well. On January 26, 2015, the network signed a three-year contract with the team to become its exclusive local television broadcaster, ending the team's previous two-year deal with WPWR-TV. In 2018, the Chicago Fire left the channel for ESPN+. The network also carried collegiate sports events including Loyola Chicago men’s and women’s basketball and a package of

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...

basketball games, including the first round and quarterfinals of Arch Madness, syndicated by Bally Sports Midwest. Prior to the termination of Comcast SportsNet's groupwide programming agreement with Fox Sports Networks, CSN Chicago additionally broadcast FSN's national programming following the shutdown of FSN Chicago, notably including the network's college sports coverage, such as

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

men's and women's basketball games (on Sundays), men's basketball games from the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

(on various nights) and

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

games from the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

and Pac-12 Conference (on Saturdays during the fall). From 2016-2019, CSN Chicago obtained the exclusive rights to championship games for the

Iowa High School Athletic Association The Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) is the regulating body for male Iowa high school interscholastic athletics and is a full member of the National Federation of State High School Associations. Its female counterpart, the Iowa Gir ...

in football, basketball and wrestling, replacing the previous model of a statewide broadcast network in Iowa of stations in each market.

Other programming

NBC Sports Chicago's flagship program was ''SportsNet Central'', a nightly sports news program featuring live reports and coverage on the Chicago area's major sports teams as well as game highlights from local and national teams. The program also featured special regular segments such as "Luke-A-Likes," a popular segment hosted by Luke Stuckmeyer on nights when he hosted the program before his October 2019 departure. It was a viewer-voting segment featuring photos submitted by viewers claiming to resemble a particular sports figure) and the "Chicago Sports Trivia Question" (a bumper segment shown before and after a commercial break featuring trivia questions related to Chicago sports. The network also carries team magazine and coaches shows focusing on the Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox, as well as the Northern Illinois University and Illinois State University football and basketball teams. It continued to carry unofficial Cubs coverage with the start of the 2020 MLB season.

CSN Chicago Sports Awards

Since the network launched in 2004, NBC Sports Chicago has hosted the ''CSN Chicago Sports Awards'', an annual award show to raise money for the

March of Dimes March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. The organization was founded by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, to co ...

(this program dates back to 1987, when the children's charity started the benefit in partnership with SportsChannel Chicago, the later FSN Chicago). The honorees included top athletes from Chicago's professional sports teams, who were chosen based on their contributions to their teams and the Chicago community. To date, the "CSN Chicago Sports Awards" has raised over $6 million for the March of Dimes.

NBC Sports Chicago staff

On-air talent and journalists

* Pat Boyle * Chuck Garfien * David Haugh * Sarah Kustok * Leila Rahimi

Digital Insiders

NBC Sports Chicago broadcasting

Related services

NBC Sports Chicago Plus

NBC Sports Chicago Plus was the secondary feed used to resolve scheduling conflicts when two teams played at the same time, with a tertiary network, ''NBC Sports Chicago Plus 2, activated occasionally when it had all four teams in play. The extra channels also carried alternate content from NBC Sports or formerly, FSN. The channel originated as a looping help service for Comcast services otherwise, and was originally allocated for the defunct HD-only channel MOJO HD. Before

digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previo ...

services were expanded, the Plus channels aired part-time, temporarily replacing networks such as CLTV or C-SPAN2 when necessary.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:NBC Sports Chicago

Television channels and stations established in 2004 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2024 Companies based in Chicago 2004 establishments in Illinois 2024 disestablishments in Illinois Television stations in Chicago