There were probably quite a few Comcast customers in the Pittsburgh area who awoke to an unpleasant surprise Tuesday morning.
Well, the Penguins don’t play again until Saturday, so a lot of Pittsburghers used to watching Penguins and Pirates games via Comcast Xfinity’s Popular TV package may not even notice they no longer get SportsNet Pittsburgh until this weekend. Effective Tuesday, SportsNet Pittsburgh will only be available to Comcast subscribers willing to pay about $90 per month for the company’s Ultimate TV Package.
This change was the result of a recent deal struck between the two parties to keep the regional sports network responsible for broadcasting Pirates, Penguins and some college-level games accessible for Xfinity users in Western Pennsylvania.
It does mean, however, that folks accustomed to paying about $70 monthly for Popular TV on Xfinity will now have to fork over about $20 more per month to get SportsNet Pittsburgh on the Ultimate Package.
“Most of our customers who receive [SportsNet Pittsburgh] today already have Ultimate TV, and our viewership information shows that they are the ones primarily watching it, so that’s why we’re making this change,” reads a statement an Xfinity spokesperson provided to the Post-Gazette late last week.
“We appreciate SportsNet Pittsburgh working with us to find a solution that balances cost and consumer choice to watch local sports in this changing video marketplace.”
A SportsNet Pittsburgh spokesperson said in a statement that “Comcast made the decision to move SportsNet Pittsburgh to the Ultimate Package” and advised Xfinity subscribers to “contact Comcast to make sure SportsNet is still in your package.”
That Xfinity spokesperson clarified that the regional sports network fee associated with SportsNet Pittsburgh “will be adjusted to account for this change.” Basically, anyone with Popular TV won’t be paying for SportsNet Pittsburgh anymore, while “the costs associated with carriage of SportsNet Pittsburgh will be applied to customers who take Ultimate TV,” according to that spokesperson.
“Promotional offers will be available for Popular TV customers who want to upgrade to Ultimate TV,” they added.
The former AT&T SportsNet was rebranded to SportsNet Pittsburgh in October 2023 after it was acquired by the Penguins last summer. The Pirates officially became joint owners of SportsNet Pittsburgh on Jan. 1. New England Sports Network, a fellow RSN of Penguins owner Fenway Sports Group, maintains its daily operations.
FSG chairman Tom Werner told the Post-Gazette last month that “our top priority was to ensure the Penguins remained on linear television” after previous SportsNet Pittsburgh owner Warner Bros. Discovery made it clear they were ready to exit the RSN business.
Pirates president Travis Williams told the Post-Gazette earlier this month that “we’re not changing our plan, not changing our payroll” in regards to the SportsNet Pittsburgh deal’s potential impact on the Pirates’ spending practices.
Xfinity and SportsNet Pittsburgh reaching an agreement that will require Pirates and Penguins fans to shell out an additional $240 or so a year comes during an inflection point for sports enthusiasts where it has been increasingly difficult (and expensive) to watch their favorite teams on a regular basis.
It only recently got much easier for University of Pittsburgh fans to watch their Panthers after WPNT-TV became Pittsburgh’s new CW affiliate and thus began broadcasting Atlantic Coast Conference football and basketball games.
Many football fans outside of Kansas City and Miami grouched about the NFL’s decision to grant the streaming service Peacock exclusive broadcasting rights for last weekend’s Dolphins-Chiefs playoff game. That gamble seemed to pay off, though, as evidenced by the 23 million total viewers who allowed Peacock owner NBCUniversal to boast that the game was the “most-streamed live event in U.S. history.”
Joshua Axelrod: jaxelrod@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jaxelburgh.
First Published: January 16, 2024, 10:30 a.m.
Updated: February 16, 2024, 5:42 p.m.