WGN reportedly looking to bring sports back to network with CHSN broadcasts

Will sports fans in Chicago soon be able to watch some of their favorite teams on the city’s famed WGN station? According to reports, it’s a consideration for WGN.

Jeff Agrest of the Chicago Sun-Times reported that “WGN TV is interested in carrying local sports again and believes there’s a path to air Chicago Sports Network broadcasts of the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks that much of the area has missed.”

The report, however, also detailed some of the complications.

“The sides would have to sort out a lot of details, such as how many games would be included and who would sell advertising for them,” Agrest wrote. “Though WGN isn’t positioned to pay a substantial rights fee — the teams would have to treat it as a marketing expense — it could deliver the teams their largest TV audience since they launched CHSN in October.”

Furthermore, a deal with WGN risks driving a deeper divide into the already tenuous negotiations between CHSN and Comcast.

“By undercutting the primary cable provider in the area, CHSN would risk further damaging its relationship with Comcast,” Agrest’s report noted. “But perhaps that’s irrelevant at this point. At a Crain’s Chicago Business event April 3, Bulls president Michael Reinsdorf accused Comcast of acting in ‘bad faith’ during carriage talks and called its behavior ‘discriminatory.'”

Chicago Sports Network launched in October 2024. Its coverage includes the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks and MLB’s Chicago White Sox. All of those teams previously had their games covered by NBC Sports Chicago.

Sports have been a big part of WGN’s programming for most of the network’s history. But late in the 2010s, the teams all shifted away from WGN — with the White Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls going to NBC Chicago and the Chicago Cubs launching the Marquee Network.