The decision by the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks to partner with Standard Media for their new regional sports network was perplexing from the start.
Here was a small media company based in Nashville, Tennessee, carrying the teams’ hopes and dreams. Its job would be to get the network distributed as widely as possible.
For that to happen, Standard would need to agree to a carriage deal with Comcast, the largest TV provider in the Chicago market. More than three weeks into Chicago Sports Network’s existence, no deal is in sight, validating concerns that Standard was not equipped for the job.