Comcast SportsNet Chicago gets a new name: NBC Sports Chicago – Chicago Tribune
Comcast SportsNet Chicago is rebranding itself NBC Sports Chicago, effective Oct. 2.
Viewers are free to continue calling it That Cable Channel That Has the Cubs, Bulls, White Sox and Blackhawks. The content isn’t changing with this switch. Just the name.
But in an industry roiled by new demands from both consumers and partner pro sports outfits, stay tuned.
CSN Chicago’s rechristening, announced Wednesday morning, is part of a move to align nearly all of the regional sports cable outlets under the Comcast corporate aegis more explicitly with NBC Sports’ national NBCSN cable channel and other NBC Sports content and outlets.
“We’re excited to complete the brand evolution,” David Preschlack, president of NBC Sports’ regional networks, said in the announcement.
CSN Chicago and the other sports channels around the country already stream content through NBCSN’s mobile app, and the NBC peacock logo has been integrated into their on-screen look and those of corporate siblings such as the Golf Channel since 2012.
That’s when Comcast, which acquired control of NBCUniversal the year before, established the NBC Sports Group for the company’s sports operations and renamed its Versus sports channel NBCSN.
Over time, NBC Sports production and programming elements increasingly have been shared among the outlets, sometimes along with on-camera talent. Now, CSN Chicago becomes NBC Sports Chicago, CSN Northwest becomes NBC Sports Northwest, CSN Philadelphia becomes NBC Sports Philadelphia and … well, the pattern extends to outlets in Boston, Washington D.C., too.
Two of the company’s West Coast outlets got a jump, beginning their transition to NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California last spring. Not changing, for the time being, is the company’s New York-based SNY channel.
The next year or two look to be critical for all regional sports networks in general and especially CSN Chi-, er, NBC Sports Chicago.
Preschlack, a former longtime Disney/ESPN exec who hails from north suburban Lake Forest, joined NBC Sports last year. In May, he assigned San Francisco-based Bill Bridgen to serve as interim replacement for CSN Chicago President and General Manager Phil Bedella, a post Bedella had held for six years.
Comcast is an equal partner with the Cubs, Bulls, White Sox and Blackhawks in the 13-year-old cable channel (and what’s been known as CSN Chicago Plus, an auxiliary channel occasionally employed when telecast commitments overlap).
But since taking over the Cubs eight years ago, the Ricketts family has made no secret of its hope to go off on its own with in 2020, when the ballclub has satisfied its contractual obligations to Comcast and the other partners.
Add to that potential industry-wide shifts from so-called cord-cutting by consumers bucking the established subscription-TV business, and it’s clear the challenges – or perhaps opportunities – for Preschlack’s plate as the executive overseeing the NBC Sports Group’s platform and content strategy.
They can’t be answered by branding alone, but a unified identity and game plan may make them more resilient and resistant to forces threatening to pull them apart.
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