Your Input Needed: What Do You Watch?

Posted on Thursday, July 25, 2019

As a community-owned cable system, we work to satisfy the wide range of customers’ viewing preferences and deliver the best value for your dollar.

Recently, we have been working on your behalf to renew our contract with NCB Sports Chicago, CFU channel 31/431, by September 30.

Starting in 2020, the network will no longer broadcast Chicago Cubs games. The Cubs have chosen to form their own independent sports network, the Cubs Marquee Sports Network. CFU is also negotiating a carriage agreement for the Cubs Marquee Network. NBC Sports Chicago will relaunch with more coverage of the Chicago White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks.

Even as they lose the Cubs games, NBC Sports Chicago is demanding a large monthly fee to provide the network to CFU customers. Rising network fees are the main reason cable and satellite TV bills go up from year to year. In fact, about 80% of the price customers pay for our most popular TV plan goes to pay carriage fees to broadcast stations and cable networks.

Because of these changes, we want to learn more about customer viewing preferences as we continue our negotiations. If you are a CFU TV customer, please fill out a short customer survey at cfu.net/TVinfo.

By filling out the survey, you’ll help shape our TV lineup. As a thank you, we’ll enter you in a drawing for a year of free cable service.

We know that affordable service is important to you. While we very rarely drop channels, in this case there is a chance we may stop carrying NBC Sports Chicago based on customer interest and the outcome of our negotiations. For more information, visit cfu.net/NBCSports.

As we face increased programming costs across the lineup, we will continue to make community input the guiding force for CFU TV service.