Chicago Bulls fans have one more way to watch games this season.
The new Chicago Sports Network has been slow to reach carrier agreements with multiple big brands, including Comcast and YouTube TV. They failed to reach terms with both before the start of the regular season on Wednesday night, and this has yet to change as we look toward the team’s second game against the Milwaukee Bucks this evening.
However, with only hours to go before tip-off, CHSN has announced an agreement with the popular streaming service FuboTV. The multi-year contract will include the network on Fubo’s Pro base channel plan as soon as tonight. This will also give fans access to watching the Chicago Blackhawks in the future (tonight’s Blackhawks-Predators game will only air on ESPN+ and Hulu).
Other Ways to Watch the Bulls
FuboTV now joins DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, U-Verse, and Astound as having access to the Chicago Sports Network. Of course, the other way fans can take in the action is via an Over-the-Air connection. This allows fans to watch CHSN directly through their televisions for free using a digital antenna.
Here is a little snippet on how that works from our previous post this preseason.
CHSN will be streamed Over-the-Air on channels across the Midwest, which means it can be accessed via a digital antenna on your television. The channel number for Chicago is 62.2 or 62.3. CHSN has a section on its website that lists the cities that will be able to access the network, but they have yet to update the over-the-air channel number for the majority of cities listed.
The main problem here is that not every television will provide an antenna for over-the-air viewing. This means viewers would have to purchase a digital antenna and set it up, which the website also walks you through. The other problem is that … well … not many people know what OTA television is and would prefer to watch the network through whatever television service they already pay for.
The hope now is that this gets the ball rolling on other agreements for CHSN. Comcast is one of the largest providers in the Chicagoland area, while YouTubeTV has become one of the most trendy go-to’s for cable cutters. In the meantime, if you can’t watch the Bulls and want to take a closer look at FuboTV, you can access that here. It looks like they’re running a free trial right now, too.