The St. Louis Blues want fans to stop waiting on a cable deal that has not arrived and start looking at the three options that already carry the team.
With a home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets set for 6 p.m. Saturday at Enterprise Center, the club and the NHL said DirecTV, U-verse and Comcast have turned down the same contract terms that Spectrum and Fubo already accepted. Those terms are not more expensive for the holdouts. The league says it offered DirecTV/U-verse and Comcast the identical deal Spectrum and Fubo signed, and that no higher price has been put on the table.
The NHL is bargaining for the Blues along with the Minnesota Wild, Columbus Blue Jackets and Carolina Hurricanes. Those four clubs lost their old regional sports network when FanDuel Sports Network shut down, and the league has been trying to place their new team broadcasts with cable, satellite and streaming companies. Talks with DirecTV/U-verse and Comcast started in August. Spectrum, the biggest distributor in the Blues’ market, and Fubo agreed in September. The other two are still saying no.
The Blues say that pattern is familiar. Big TV companies often drag talks into the start of a season, hoping fans will pressure the team instead of switching providers. Other common moves, the club said, include claiming customers do not actually want the hometown team, even when fans are angry about blackouts, or hinting that a deal is close so people will not look elsewhere.
Comcast’s current proposal is the clearest sticking point. In parts of the Blues’ territory, Comcast wants NHL games on a pricier sports tier than the one that already carries comparable baseball, basketball and college sports. Blues fans would pay an extra fee on top of the package those other sports already require.
The NHL and the Blues say they are ready to sign the same contract with DirecTV/U-verse and Comcast that Spectrum and Fubo already have. Until that happens, the club is telling fans not to count on those services for Saturday or the games that follow.
In the Blues’ broadcast territory, local games air on Blue Note+, the team’s new network. Fans can get it on select Spectrum packages, on Fubo, or as a streaming subscription through Amazon Prime Video. The Prime Video option does not require a full Amazon Prime membership. It is priced at $19.99 a month or $99.99 for the year and covers the locally produced games, which are the regular-season games not set aside for national broadcasts on ABC, ESPN, ESPN+/Hulu or TNT.
Out-of-market viewers still need a different path, such as ESPN+ or NHL Center Ice. National games stay on the national networks no matter which local provider a fan uses. Every game is also on the radio at 101 ESPN (101.1 FM) and in the Blues app.
The team is pointing fans who cannot find the channel to stlouisblues.com/watch for subscription links and territory details. For anyone still on DirecTV, U-verse or Comcast, the message is simple: those companies do not have the games yet, and the Blues are no longer asking fans to wait them out.
