Avalanche, Nuggets Back on TVs After Altitude-Comcast Deal

Altitude TV and Comcast have ended their five-year breakup and made things official: starting today, February 4, Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets games will once again be available to Comcast customers after the two sides reached a deal.

The disagreement between Comcast and DISH Network and Altitude, commonly called the Comcast-Altitude dispute, began in 2019 when the TV providers dropped Altitude, claiming the carrying fees the Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (KSE) channel charged were too high. Since Comcast, which does business as Xfinity, is the largest TV provider in the Denver area, the disagreement prevented most people in Denver from being able to watch their teams unless they had DirecTV, which re-upped with Altitude in 2019 after a short-lived dispute with the network.

But that long, national nightmare is now over. Both sides credited letting bygones be bygones as the reason a new deal was possible this time around at a press conference on February 4 announcing the move.

In March 2024, KSE — which owns the Avalanche, Nuggets, Colorado Mammoth, Colorado Rapids and Los Angeles Rams — moved longtime executives Kevin Demoff and Steve Smith into new leadership positions. Shortly after their promotions, the two men said their top priority was getting the KSE teams back on television in Denver.

At a February 4 event announcing the renewed deal, Demoff said he thought mending fences would be simple, but the nearly year-long journey proved otherwise.

"We owe an apology to our staff, to our players, to our coaches, to our front office and, most importantly, to our fans," Demoff said of how long the deal took to get done. "Every day that went by for the past year was a game too many, too many shots, too many goals that were missed for our fans. ....This was priority number one for the Kroenke family." The Kroenke family, headed by Stan Kroenke, had renewed vigor to get a deal done, Demoff said. And so did one Denver politician: Mayor Mike Johnston. Other than Josh Kroenke, Stan's son, Demoff said no one texted him more about the deal than Johnston.

"Every night I knew that there was a Denverite trying to watch a game who couldn't, and that was a loss for the city," Johnston said at the Tuesday press conference. "No one should miss the genius of these two teams."

Denver sports fans missed out on a championship season from both the Nuggets and Avs as well as MVP seasons from Nathan MacKinnon and Nikola Jokic during the dispute. Johnston didn't — the mayor has DirecTV — but he said he was passionate to see the TV deal finalized because of the communal value sports teams provide the city.

In addition to passionate fans who begged for a deal, Demoff said players told team executives that they were at a disadvantage for accolades like All-Star games because people couldn't watch them play.

"That crystallized for us this isn't just about the fans and their disappointment, this isn't just about our staff, this is about our players and coaches feeling good about what we do," Demoff said.

Adding two new options for people to watch their teams helped, too. Within the last eleven months, KSE signed a deal with TEGNA, which operates 9NEWS and KTVD Channel 20 in Denver, to broadcast forty Avs and Nuggets games over the air, and it launched Altitude+, a streaming app for the channel.

Demoff said the ratings on TEGNA have been far better than anyone expected and that Altitude+ has also been extremely popular "which is a great testament to the pent-up demand for these teams in this market."

"What was helpful and certainly a credit to Comcast, is they saw the ratings, they saw the success of Altitude+, and they knew that their customers wanted to be able to watch Altitude," Demoff said.

J.D. Keller, senior vice president of the Mountain West Region for Comcast, told reporters that he is looking forward to not having to hide in his office because his own employees were also clamoring for a deal over the last 36 months.

"We've just been watching it and looking at it and talking about this, and trying to figure out a way that balances that flexibility and choice for how people consume sports and entertainment with a cost that's fair to our customers who want to watch, and want this channel, and want to watch the games without having all of our customer base having to pay for it if it's not something they want," Leslie Oliver, senior director of external affairs and communication for Comcast added.

Oliver said having fresh perspectives on both ends helped the deal come to fruition.

In addition to Comcast customers having access again, Demoff said the team still plans to explore broadcasting games over the air without cable; although the deal's details are still private, he said the Comcast issue won't come up again for years rather than months.

"I hope that they never feel this pain again," Demoff said of Comcast-subscribing fans.

Denver subscribers to Xfinity's More Sports and Entertainment package, which can be purchased as an add-on to Xfinity Sports & News, Popular TV or Ultimate TV video services, can already see Altitude on channel 1250 under the current $9.99 monthly price. Starting April 8 the price will rise to $15.95 per month to accommodate the cost of Altitude.