But owing to the ongoing dispute between Altitude TV — the Stan Kroenke-owned television channel that holds the local media rights for the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche — and Comcast and DISH Network, many of us have become criminals by illegally streaming Nugs and Avs games.
One of the best and biggest sites for such activity was StreamEast, which centralized feeds for almost any sporting event imaginable on one fairly easy-to-use site. While Westword has always refrained from naming the sites we use to commit our streaming subterfuge for fear that we’d put authorities on to their scent, the website was hardly a secret.
This weekend, that streaming went dark. When sports fans attempted to visit the original StreamEast website, they were greeted with a notice that the domain had been seized by law enforcement.
“This domain name has been seized by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) pursuant to a warrant issued by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana,” a message under the HSI, Department of Justice and National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center insignias read.
The message goes on to remind people that it is unlawful to “reproduce or distribute copyrighted material including sporting events, television shows, movies, music, software, or games without authorization.” It even helpfully notes that offenders can face up to five years in prison, fines, restitution and forfeiture.
My instant thought upon seeing the news: How am I going to watch the Nuggets this season?
First of all, I’m sorry. Second of all, I know I’m not alone. Almost all of my friends used the website to watch these local teams. It’s simply the easiest and most affordable option, with some even saying they'll just go to StreamEast rather than navigate the complicated process of entering their cable or streaming credentials to watch certain games legally.
Other pirated sports websites aren’t as consistent, run significantly behind live action and foist extremely sketchy pop-up ads on users. StreamEast wasn’t perfect, but it was the best of them, and it’s a huge loss for the financially struggling sports fan.
When Kroenke Sports and Entertainment — the company through which the Kroenke family, who owns the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids and Colorado Mammoth, runs its operations in the state — announced a shakeup in its executive suite in March, the new execs said getting local teams back on local TV was a top priority.
“There’s not a more painful issue in our entire web of companies than the Altitude issue,” Josh Kroenke, Stan's son and vice chairman of KSE, said at the time. “I can't escape it. There's nothing that I would like more than to be out in the community, going to the grocery store, picking up some eggs on a Tuesday morning and not being asked about the Altitude situation, going up a ski lift and not being asked about the Altitude situation.”
Comcast and DISH claim the fees Altitude charges are too high to carry the channel. This has prevented most people in Denver from being able to watch their teams unless they have DirecTV, which re-upped with Altitude in 2019 after a short-lived dispute with the network.
In response to Comcast and DISH refusing to carry the channel, Altitude filed a lawsuit alleging that Comcast violated antitrust laws by trying to eliminate the Kroenke channel. That case was settled last May, but Comcast and Altitude still haven’t agreed on a deal that would let fans watch.
Fans would watch if they could. Many users in online Nuggets and Avalanche forums begged KSE to make a similar move when the Phoenix Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury announced last August that every one of both teams’ games would be available over the air, free to anyone who has a TV antenna and streamed online for free for the Mercury and for a subscription fee for the Suns. The Utah Jazz soon followed suit.
However, the regional sports networks that previously carried Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz games, AT&T SportsNet and Bally Sports, shut down over financial trouble before their owners moved their games to antenna broadcast, which isn’t what Denver fans want, either.
The desire isn’t for Altitude to implode, but for it to be available without costing an arm and a leg.
We love our local Altitude personalities — they’ve won many Best of Denver awards over the years — and we want to be able to watch them. However, most people under 35 don’t even have a cable provider with Altitude as an option. We also just don’t have the money.
DISH Network, for example. advertises its low-price package at $85 per month. To get NBA TV, the advertised price is $105 per month. That’s more than a grocery run or a utility bill for most Denver residents, and doesn't even include the extra fees that would be added on to get Altitude TV.
Josh Kroenke (center) Kevin Demoff (right) and Mike Neary (left) promised to make getting the teams back on TV a priority.
Screenshot of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment press conference
We’re not saying there aren’t options to watch, but it shouldn’t be this hard or expensive. Even people with more disposable income and who are far more inclined to follow laws than I am have resorted to the wonders of StreamEast.
I taught my dad how to use illegal streaming so he can watch his favorite NFL team when it isn’t shown on local TV. My dad is a rule-abiding angel: He pays for Peacock so he can watch Liverpool in the Premier League and only just cut the cable last month in favor of switching to YouTubeTV. Yet he still needs a bit of online streaming action.
It’s not just cheap whiners who aren’t willing to cough up the cash. It’s generations of sports fans who want to see the success of their teams in real time. Only one other city has ever had an MVP in both the NBA and NHL in the same season, as Denver did last year with Nikola Jokić and Nathan MacKinnon, and both the Avalanche and Nuggets are considered championship-contending teams in their primes.
And so many people couldn’t watch those games legally — or at all — if they weren’t up for taking the illegal route.
It sounds ridiculous, but StreamEast helped the Denver market learn to love both of these teams and the broadcasters who work so hard to share each game. It’s great that the Nuggets will have 22 nationally televised games (29 if you count NBATV, despite those games being blacked out on local TV) this year. But that’s not every game, and it’s not our hometown talent calling those games.
With how dismissive certain ESPN and other national media personalities have been about Denver’s teams and athletes, plenty of people would likely choose to watch the Altitude broadcast even when national TV is an option, which is the case for about half the nationally televised games in a season.
While we can’t blame the feds for ostensibly doing their job, we’re begging for a way to watch our teams that doesn’t break the bank or require wading through 1,000 porn bots or other suspicious pop-ups. StreamEast used to be the way. What will we do now?
In 2022, Westword named Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center as the Best Place to Watch Altitude TV. Maybe I’ll end up there again this season.
