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Colorado Avalanche: Altitude TV Should Blaze the Trail with Online Streaming

By Nadia Archuleta

PARIS, FRANCE - JANUARY 10: In this photo illustration, the Hulu media service provider's logo is displayed on the screen of a television on January 10, 2019 in Paris, France. Hulu, a streaming video service competing with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, announced in a statement released on Tuesday that it has surpassed 25 million subscribers and has gained 8 million users in a year in the United States by 2018. Hulu is a US subscription-based video-on-demand website that offers movies, TV shows and music videos. (Photo by Illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images)
PARIS, FRANCE - JANUARY 10: In this photo illustration, the Hulu media service provider's logo is displayed on the screen of a television on January 10, 2019 in Paris, France. Hulu, a streaming video service competing with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, announced in a statement released on Tuesday that it has surpassed 25 million subscribers and has gained 8 million users in a year in the United States by 2018. Hulu is a US subscription-based video-on-demand website that offers movies, TV shows and music videos. (Photo by Illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images) /
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Altitude TV, which broadcasts Colorado Avalanche games, needs to join up with one of the online platforms to make content available.

Colorado Avalanche games will not be viewable in Colorado and the surrounding states as matters stand right now. The big three TV providers — Comcast, Dish Network, and DirecTV — have dropped the Avs’ broadcast network, Altitude TV.

The drop is part of an ongoing saga which you can read about here. However, with T-1 month until the regular season starts, as of right now local fans will have no (legitimate) way to watch the much-anticipated season coming up.

So, now is the time to blaze the trail. As Avs insider Adrian Dater points out, part of what’s going in between Altitude and the Big 3 is TV carriers attempting to recoup lost revenue from viewers cutting the cord by squeezing regional sports networks.

Their rationale is that, if they start broadcasting regional sports on their own networks, they won’t have to pay fees to existing local networks. It’s a little like Walmart moving into a small town and squeezing out the local ma and pa stores which is unfunnily ironic considering Stan Kroenke is married to the Walmart heiress.

Anyway, Altitude TV has a chance to do what the smart ma and pa stores did — take their goods online. In this case, the goods are the Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, and Colorado Rapids.

Now, it would be convenient if Altitude could just stream directly to consumers, effectively cutting out the middleman. However, there just isn’t a big enough audience.

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A better idea would be for Altitude to blaze the trail in hockey programming and join up with one of the already-existing online platforms. Altitude could be the first, and other regional sports networks could follow — Fox Sports North  has already been dropped on Dish Network.

I already proposed that Altitude should do a deal with NHL.TV. Maybe subscribers could have a couple options. One would be to only subscribe to their own regional sports network. The other would be to bundle — regular NHL.TV and the option to unlock regional sports programming for a slightly higher fee. NHL.TV would have to offer a similar deal as the Big 3 previously were.

NHL.TV costs $139.99 for the full season or $24.99 a month.

Another obvious option is ESPN+. The platform already broadcasts a daily selection of live games from several sports, including the NHL. Right now, you don’t get to choose to watch a specific game. However, similar to NHL.TV, they could offer an upcharge for accessing Altitude TV.

ESPN+ currently costs $4.99 a month.

FuboTV is the most expensive option but also looks like it would be the easiest for a transition. The site currently offers 95 channels for $54.99 a month. What makes them attractive in this instance is they offer an NBA League Pass for an additional $28.99 a month.

It already exists on the site, so I don’t see why Altitude TV wouldn’t be able to start the transition over to FuboTV for other regional sports networks. Granted, that’s a lot to pay a month, but the Big 3 are threatening to bump Altitude up to a similar tier even if they do come to an agreement with the network.

Hulu TV has a similar setup to NHL.TV in that you can stream NHL games on Live TV. However, regional games are blacked out. Like I propose with NHL.TV, the platform could make a deal with Altitude to offer an unblock option to subscribers who pay an additional fee. Ditto Sling TV.

Next. Throwback to Media Day Suit Pictures. dark

I’m not a business person, and I’m sure there are numerous business pitfalls to the above suggestions. However, the landscape of television is changing as more people prefer to cut the cord and customize their viewing experience.

Altitude TV has the chance to be a trailblazer and take their excellent content into the 21st century.

They have to do something, or local Avs fans are in very real danger of missing out on a much-anticipated Colorado Avalanche season.

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