Altitude Sports is charting a new path to bring NBA Denver Nuggets and NHL Colorado Avalanche games to local fans, including through an OTA broadcast deal with Tegna and plans for a direct-to-consumer subscription regional sports app.
On Thursday, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (owner of Altitude Sports, the Nuggets and Avalanche) announced a new broadcast rights agreement with Tegna that will see 20 games for each the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche available to local fans for free via over-the-air on Denver’s 9News (KUSA-TV) and My20 (KTVD-TV). Of the 20 live games per team, 10 will be on 9News, the local NBC affiliate.
In addition, this October, KSE is launching a new subscription-based direct-to-consumer service, Altitude+. The service is priced at $19.95 per month, offering all Altitude Sports’ broadcast of Nuggets and Avalanche games that aren’t exclusive to a national network to fans within its nine-state territory. Along with games, the service features pre- and post-game coverage, full episodes of original programs and regional collegiate coverage of Colorado State, University of Denver and Air Force Academy athletics. Initially Altitude+ is available on mobile via iOS and Android devices, with CTV apps expected to follow soon after. The service will also be available as a TV Everywhere (TVE) app, which is accessible and doesn’t cost extra for those who get the Altitude Sports network through their pay TV provider.
The Altitude Sports RSN continues to count carriage across its territory with local games available to subscribers on Fubo TV, DirecTV and DirecTV Stream. It’s also carried on Charter’s Spectrum TV, with availability in parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and Montana.
The move comes as Altitude Sports has been grappling with a struggling regional sports network (RSN) model, and where carriage disputes in recent years with traditional pay TV providers have made accessing games of its Colorado teams somewhat of a challenge for local fans. That includes earlier carriage impasses that saw Altitude dropped from Dish and Comcast Xfinity pay TV systems. Altitude in 2023 settled an antitrust lawsuit it filed against Comcast related to the parties' long-running dispute, but did so without an agreement to restore the RSN back to the cable operator’s systems.
This spring Axios reported Kroenke President of team and media operations Kevin Demoff, at a March press conference, as saying Altitude’s top priority was coming up with a creative solution to bring fans access to games, at the time promising a renewed a look at disputes, while also mentioning a potential streaming product and a local OTA broadcast option.
Josh Kroenke, KSE vice chairman, in a statement about the Tegna deal said, “we are thrilled to deliver a comprehensive solution so that our fans can watch all Nuggets and Avs games this season and beyond.”
“As we embark on the 25th season of Ball Arena and not only celebrate the past but look toward the future, it is fitting that we introduce the next evolution of our Altitude Sports network that includes Altitude+ and games on 9NEWS and My20.” Kroenke continued. “Thanks to this innovative model, our fans can be with us every step of the way this season in our quest to bring both the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy and the Stanley Cup back to Denver.”
Altitude and its KSE owners aren’t the only ones in the RSN realm looking for new models. Other professional sports teams and leagues themselves have been seeking alternatives as the historical RSN way of doing things comes under pressure with traditional pay TV provider push back against increasing carriage fees amid broader declining linear video customer bases and viewership. Illustrating and contributing to the woes of the RSN ecosystem is the ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy of debt-laden Diamond Sports Group, operator of the Bally Sports RSNs.
Broadcast deals with local station groups are one avenue some are pursuing, where Tegna itself has been a recent beneficiary.
Earlier this month the NBA Dallas Mavericks announced a multi-year deal with Tegna to broadcast basketball games that are not exclusively televised nationally, for free over-the-air on local stations in Texas – after a contract with Diamond Sports’ Bally Sports was terminated. For teams, broadcast offers potentially new or broader reach, as the Mavericks noted the Tegna deal makes local games available to approximately 10 million people in Texas and nearly triples the current number of households the NBA team can reach across the state. And the new the Altitude Sports broadcast agreement with Tegna means nearly 3.5 million people in the Denver metro area will get free OTA access to the games.
“We’ve worked with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment for more than 25 years, and we’re thrilled to take our relationship to the next level as the official over-the-air broadcast home of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche,” said Mark Cornetta, SVP of media operations at Tegna, in a statement. “With both teams coming off recent championships, the demand from fans is at an all-time high. Today, there are even more reasons for fans to celebrate with the ability to watch Nuggets and Avs games for free over-the-air.”
And local broadcasters working to figure out their own shifts amid linear pay TV declines and a viewers’ continued migration to streaming, appear keen to strike local sports deals. Some teams are cutting out the middleman and abandoning the RSN model altogether. TVREV analyst Alan Wolk has pointed out that as bloated cable bundles continue to fall out of favor, professional sports teams are realizing they can reach more viewers via broadcast that will be available OTA or in a less expensive MVPD or vMVPD lineup than through RSNs.
“What’s more, they will have more leverage with broadcasters, who need them more than the other way around,” wrote Wolk in an August column. “The broadcasters are also going to have strong local ad sales squads that will be able to create extra revenue for the team in a way an RSN could not.”
Direct-to-consumer offerings are another route, where teams like the Utah Jazz, for example, have introduced their own services. But regional sports networks are also looking at DTC, as seen by Altitude and others such as Yes Network and MSG Networks. Under a recent joint venture YES and MSG are introducing the Gotham Sports app this fall, a DTC service that offers the existing MSG+ and YES App services as standalones or combined at a discounted price. The regional DTC app features games for local fans of NBA, NHL and MLB teams including as the New York Knicks, Yankees, Rangers, Islanders, and New Jersey Devils, Brooklyn Nets and Buffalo Sabres.