There’s an old adage in the American English parlance: Time is Money. I don’t know where it came from, probably an AMEX commercial from the 1980’s, all that matters is, there is some grain of truth to it. And it’s the crux of my problem with the new CHSN and it’s current form of broadcasting Bulls games.
For those of you that don’t know, CHSN (Chicago Sports Network) is the newly created Regional Sports Network here in Chicago. Owned by Jerry Reinsdorf and Rocky Wirtz, CHSN is the only channel Chicago sports fans have to watch the Bulls, White Sox and Blackhawks. You might be asking, “Isn’t that the same thing as NBCSports Chicago?” Well it is, and it isn’t. CHSN is Reinsdorf and Wirtz cutting out NBC Universal from any profit that was being made by broadcasting these three woeful teams on the now defunct NBCSports Chicago channel.
In a move generated by capitalism and greed, Reinsdorf and Wirtz took a year to slap together the barest of bones sports broadcasting company, and in typical Chicago sports owner fashion, modeled it after something out of the 1980’s. The good news: You can watch Chicago Bulls games for free, over the air, with a regular old TV antenna! That’s right! All you need to watch the Chicago Bulls is a digital TV antenna that can get channels 62.2 and 62.3. Or maybe you’re old school and you have Direct TV, Astound or AT&T cable, CHSN is available for you to watch and DVR (But not Comcast Xfinity the biggest cable provider in the Chicago Land Area). But if you’re someone that has moved beyond cable and only really streams because, you know, it’s incredibly convenient, then you’re shit out of luck.
I’m one of that loser crowd, aka a streamer, that doesn’t really do commercials anymore. I don’t have the time or mental space to watch 3-5 minutes of companies trying to brainwash me every 3-5 minutes. I prefer the subtle brainwashing technique of binge watching season after season of some sitcom schlock chock full of product placement.
“Okay, we get it, you’re a spoiled Millenial. Why should I care about your first world problems?” You shouldn’t, but it’s my blog, so here’s an in depth look at my first world problem.
Let’s take a look at what I currently have to do to watch a Chicago Bulls game, without the ability to fire up the old YouTube TV DVR, skip through commercials, and watch at my convenience.
Consider last Friday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks featuring a typical 7 p.m. start time, aired over CHSN channel 62.3 (if memory serves), and an all out barn burner of a game that resulted in the Bulls first win of the season. What a great game to watch… if you could.
Here’s the thing, I work until 8pm every Friday night, so that means if I’m going to catch a 7pm start, the game has to be on a TV in the background while I’m working. I can do that, but I can’t really pay any attention to the game because my job is one of those jobs that requires rapt attention to the work the entire time. But 8pm is also bedtime for my two small children. On Friday’s I bounce from work directly into bedtime routine with maybe a 5 minute bathroom break for myself in-between. By the time the kids are asleep, on a good night it’s 8:30, on most nights it’s closer to 9 o’clock.
Basically, I got to watch the fourth quarter of Friday’s game.
More Good News, Chicago Sports Fans! CHSN rebroadcasts the game the next morning (around 10-10:30am? I always have to look it up online via TV Guide!!! The 1980’s strike again), and that’s when you get a chance to re-watch/watch the parts of the game that you missed… Unless of course your kid has a dance recital on Saturday, which mine did.
Between the inconvenience of having to watch the game only at specific times during the day, to the unbearable amount of time wasted on commercials and half time, watching the Bulls on CHSN is too expensive for me. It robs me of valuable time. Time I use for work, time I use for my family, time I use for myself. When I was watching games via YouTube TV DVR I could watch whenever I could afford it. I could skip the trash commercials and half time talking heads. I could watch at 8:30 in the morning or 11 at night. I could finish watching a whole game in less than an hour and a half. Now I have to spend up to nearly 3 hours on a basketball game riddled with commercials and half time nonsense. I can’t do that 82 times a season.
I know I’m not the only person who is experiencing this inconvenience, because anytime an article or social media post is uploaded about CHSN there are literally hundreds of comments that read something like my bitch fest above.
It’s easier for out of market, non-Bulls fans with NBA League Pass to watch Bulls games than it is for me a life long fan and Chicagoan.
And yeah, ultimately that’s a “me” problem, and I’m already working on solutions to it, but for Reinsdorf and Wirtz to pull a shitty get-richer-quick scheme like CHSN at a time when their franchises are all at rock-bottom… not the sort of thing I’d have done, but I’m not a billionaire, so what do I know.
Until I am a billionaire and can afford to watch “Free” TV, thanks for reading, thanks for subscribing, thanks to TV Guide for still existing, and GO BULLS!
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