Here’s the Dish: NBC Sports Chicago unlikely to appear on satellite provider anytime soon

In 2007, my family made the pilgrimage from the city to the suburbs. Comcast cable had provided our TV package, so we arranged for the service to be moved.

Then the Big Ten Network launched, and Comcast didn’t pick it up. Faster than you can say “Oskee Wow Wow,” I cancelled Comcast and signed on with Dish Network, which offered a promotion that included BTN.

For 12 years, we subscribed to Dish. Carriage disputes popped up here and there, as with any TV provider, and they were resolved without significant interruption. Dish’s technology improved over the years, and we were happy with it.

But when Fox, Fox Sports 1 and BTN were pulled from Dish last month, I began to worry. They returned in 12 days, but not before we missed several games that mattered to us. When the relaunched NBC Sports Chicago went dark this month, I figured our relationship with Dish was coming to an end.

Last Friday, 11 days into a blackout that has no end in sight, I dropped Dish and returned to Comcast.

Now, changing TV providers isn’t as easy as changing your toothbrush. But that’s what NBCSCH is imploring Dish viewers to do. And judging by the direction Dish is headed, that appears to be the best move for fans who value a regional sports network.

When it relaunched Oct. 1 as the exclusive home for the Blackhawks, Bulls and White Sox, NBCSCH had agreements with more than 50 carriers to pay for their programming. Only Dish and its streaming service, Sling, didn’t return despite being offered the same terms as the other carriers, according to industry sources.

Dish has made its feelings about RSNs clear this year. In July, the 21 Fox Sports RSNs were removed, keeping 14 MLB teams off the air. With the blackout still in effect, 17 NBA teams and 13 NHL teams under the Fox RSN umbrella are off the air. (Those channels now belong to Sinclair.) Altitude, the RSN that carries the Avalanche and Nuggets, was blacked out in August.

Granted, the most expensive programming is sports. Dish always has been the least amenable to sports programmers in an effort to keep prices down. It has been viewed as the lesser-expensive option to satellite rival DirecTV, which has positioned itself as the choice for sports fans, particularly with the NFL’s Sunday Ticket. DirecTV agreed to carry NBCSCH while finalizing a long-term deal.

Dish is arguing that without the Cubs, who will launch Marquee Sports Network with Sinclair in February, NBCSCH isn’t as valuable. It also says customers who don’t watch RSNs — which it says are the majority of its viewers — shouldn’t have to subsidize them for those who do. But the way NBCSCH sees it, the channel has more live games than it ever had before, and it’s enhancing its coverage of its teams.

Sports programming is expensive for a reason: It keeps viewers’ attention for hours, and those viewers will come back for more. Besides, how many channels are sports fans subsidizing that they’re not watching?

What troubled me when I was cancelling my service was an exchange with a Dish representative. He said the sides were talking and trying to work out an agreement and asked that I wait out the negotiation. Obviously, he was only trying to keep my business, but the signals Dish has sent about its future with RSNs are contrary to his script.

When the blackout of the Fox networks overlapped with NBCSCH’s blackout, I was looking at the possibility of missing Hawks, Bears and Bulls games in a four-day span after already missing NFL and college football games the weekend before. I had reached my limit of carriage disputes.

And as I’ve written before, this doesn’t bode well for the Cubs airing their games on Dish. That was another reason I dropped it for Comcast. The odds appear much better that the largest cable provider in the area will pick up Marquee. On Thursday, Sinclair reached an agreement with AT&T to air Marquee on DirecTV, U-verse and streaming service AT&T TV.

I realize there are streaming options available. NBCSCH is on Hulu, YouTube TV, PlayStation Vue and fuboTV. But the last thing I wanted to do was continue to pay for Dish and add a streaming service on top of that. As a family, we’re not ready to cut the cord yet.

I’m not the only one who dropped Dish to keep NBCSCH, so Dish is aware of the backlash. To avoid more, it needs to be upfront about its service. If it’s not going to be the home for RSNs, just say so. Don’t have executives talk tough about a broken business model and perpetuate the myth that it’s working to keep the channels. It’s not.

You don’t even need a TV to see that.