DENVER — For the past three years, Colorado sports fans who are Comcast subscribers haven't been able to watch their beloved Avalanche or Nuggets on their television because of an ongoing dispute between Comcast and Altitude Sports.
Altitude Sports representatives claim they've made an offer to Comcast but haven't heard back.
During a press conference Tuesday morning, Altitude TV said it's been 73 days since it made an offer, but Comcast has not responded.
The network has also launched a campaign called "Why did Comcast Dump the Fans?" And said it has collected more than 50,000 signatures, demanding the network return to Comcast.
Altitude TV representatives claim the offer made is the same pricing and distribution model Comcast provided to AT&T Sports Net, where fans can watch The Rockies.
Altitude Sports said Comcast has, to date, ignored the offer and has provided no reply to Altitude, thus continuing the blackout.
In media comments, the network also said Comcast spokespeople have denigrated the local fan base, suggesting that few Comcast subscribers want to see local teams, despite an estimated 750,000 fans coming to downtown Denver to celebrate the Stanley Cup win.
"Our main message today was to speak to our fans. We hear our fans. We know they're incredibly frustrated, especially our fans who are Comcast subscribers. They want Altitude back on the air. They want to watch their teams. And so we just wanted to remind our fans that we hear them," said Matt Hutchings, CEO of KSE Media Ventures, Altitude's parent company.
Fans like Tiffany Randon have been caught in the middle of the dispute for the past three years.
"It bites, especially being hometown fans. Colorado has some awesome fans for all our sports, and not being able to get two of the major ones that are just now starting, it bites," Randon said.
Denver7 reached out to Comcast for a comment. Leslie Oliver, who is the senior director of external communications for Comcast, Mountain West region, provided the following statement.
Our goal is simple: we want to make the games available to the fans who want to watch them without making everyone else pay for it.
Since the July 2022 mediation related to the lawsuit, there‘s been no new proposal from Altitude, and they are continuing to proceed with their lawsuit. Altitude’s position requires nearly every Comcast customer in the Denver area to pay a fee increase for Comcast to broadcast the Altitude channel on TV, regardless of whether they watch the channel. We have been and remain willing to distribute Altitude’s content in a way that avoids raising rates for virtually all our customers.
It's still unclear how long it'll take for both parties to reach an agreement but Oliver said there is a pre-trial conference set for November 2023.