Altitude Sports

About Altitude Sports

Overview

Altitude Sports and Entertainment, usually known simply as Altitude Sports, is an American regional sports network based in the Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area. Owned by Stan Kroenke's Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE), the network serves as the broadcast home of Denver's Kroenke-owned teams: the NBA's Denver Nuggets, the NHL's Colorado Avalanche and MLS's Colorado Rapids, along with the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and the University of Denver Pioneers. The network launched on September 4, 2004, as a team-owned competitor to FSN Rocky Mountain, which is now known as AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain. As one of the few regional sports networks in the country owned outright by the same company that owns the teams it carries, Altitude occupies a distinctive position in the American sports television landscape. Its headquarters and production operations are based in the Denver area, with the Altitude Network Operation Center located in Centennial, Colorado.

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment Ownership

Altitude Sports is owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, the holding company of billionaire businessman Stan Kroenke. KSE owns the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, the Colorado Rapids of MLS, the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League and the Ball Arena in Denver, home of the Nuggets and Avalanche, as well as Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, home of the Rapids. The vertical integration of team ownership and broadcast rights is the defining feature of Altitude's business model: unlike most regional sports networks, which negotiate rights fees with independent team owners, Altitude's teams and its television network answer to the same corporate parent. This structure has given the network unusual stability in its programming portfolio, since its flagship rights are effectively never at risk of moving to a competing network, but it has also put the network at the center of some of the most bitter carriage disputes in regional sports television history.

Launch in 2004

Altitude Sports and Entertainment was launched on September 4, 2004. The channel was launched as a team-owned competitor to FSN Rocky Mountain, and it became the official broadcaster for both of Kroenke's flagship teams on launch day. Reaching a carriage agreement with Comcast just before the network was set to televise its first Nuggets game was a critical early milestone, since Comcast served most of the cable homes in the Denver metropolitan region. Within its first decade, Altitude expanded beyond game broadcasts to become a vendor of network services, handling master-control, origination and uplink services for multiple channels from its Altitude Network Operation Center in Centennial, about 17 miles southeast of downtown Denver. The control room was built to handle five HD channels, and the operation has produced more than 225 live events per year, transforming the nine-year-old startup into a Rocky Mountain regional sports powerhouse by the early 2010s.

Nuggets, Avalanche and Rapids Coverage

The Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche are the network's flagship properties, with Altitude televising the teams' regional game broadcasts along with extensive pregame and postgame programming. Nuggets broadcasts have chronicled the rise of two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić and the team's run to its first NBA championship, while Avalanche broadcasts covered Nathan MacKinnon's Hart Trophy season and the team's Stanley Cup championship in 2022. The Colorado Rapids of MLS are also a core programming property, giving Altitude year-round professional sports coverage across the NBA, NHL and MLS calendars. The network's on-air talent includes veteran broadcasters who have been with the channel for years, and its production values have consistently been regarded as among the strongest in the regional sports business, reflecting the investment of a team owner with a direct stake in how his teams are presented on television.

Altitude 2 and Production Operations

Altitude also operates Altitude 2, a secondary overflow channel used when scheduling conflicts prevent two games from airing simultaneously on the main channel. The two-channel structure is essential for a network carrying three major professional teams plus lacrosse and college programming, since the NBA, NHL and MLS schedules frequently overlap. The Altitude Network Operation Center in Centennial handles master control, origination and uplink services for Altitude 1 and Altitude 2, as well as additional channels the company has serviced over the years. This in-house production infrastructure has allowed Altitude to control the full broadcast chain for its teams, from the arena to the viewer's screen, and to offer its technical services to other networks. The network's programming also includes the University of Denver Pioneers and the Colorado Mammoth, giving Denver-area fans a single home for the region's professional and collegiate teams beyond the Broncos, who air on national broadcast partners.

The Carriage Dispute with Comcast, DirecTV and Dish

In August and September 2019, Altitude Sports became the center of one of the most contentious carriage disputes in regional sports television history. A 15-year partnership dissolved when the network's deals with its three largest distributors expired: Dish Network dropped Altitude first, followed by Comcast and DirecTV, which both allowed their contracts to lapse at the end of August 2019. The dispute centered on rights fees, with Altitude executives insisting that what Comcast and DirecTV were offering was not a sustainable business, while the distributors argued the network's asking price was too high. The blackout left hundreds of thousands of regional sports fans unable to watch Nuggets and Avalanche games on the region's dominant cable and satellite providers, just as both teams were emerging as championship contenders. The dispute dragged on for more than five years, forcing fans to seek out alternate viewing options and making Altitude a national symbol of the breakdown of the regional sports network model.

Altitude+ Direct-to-Consumer Streaming

Beginning with the 2024-25 NBA and NHL seasons, Altitude Sports launched Altitude+, a direct-to-consumer streaming service that streams all games carried on Altitude Sports for $19.95 per month. The launch of Altitude+ gave cord-cutting fans their first legal a la carte option for watching the Nuggets and Avalanche, and it represented a significant strategic shift for a network that had long relied on the traditional cable bundle. The streaming service arrived alongside a parallel initiative to bring selected games back to free over-the-air television: Altitude reached an agreement with Tegna Inc. to simulcast 20 Denver Nuggets games and 20 Colorado Avalanche games over the air, with half of the games simulcast on KTVD and the remaining games on KUSA, Tegna's Denver stations. The combination of a streaming product and over-the-air simulcasts marked Altitude's most aggressive effort yet to reach fans who had been cut off from its programming during the carriage dispute.

The Comcast Return in 2025

On February 4, 2025, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and Comcast announced that Altitude Sports had returned to Xfinity TV customers, ending a blackout that had lasted since the previous contract expired in 2019. The live game broadcasts resumed that same night with the Avalanche playing at Vancouver. Kevin Demoff, the president of team and media operations for KSE, publicly apologized to fans, saying the dispute had been the Kroenke family's top priority and acknowledging that too many games had been missed. Josh Kroenke, KSE's vice chairman, called it the best possible outcome for Nuggets and Avalanche fans, who once again had a straightforward way to see every game on one service. The agreement restored Altitude to the region's largest cable provider just as the Nuggets and Avalanche were competing at the top of their leagues, and it closed one of the longest-running carriage disputes in the history of American regional sports television.

Coverage Area and How to Watch

Altitude Sports serves the Rocky Mountain region, with its primary footprint in Colorado and surrounding states. The network is available on Comcast Xfinity systems throughout Colorado and the surrounding region following the 2025 agreement, as well as on other cable and satellite providers that carry the channel. Fans without a traditional pay-TV subscription can watch through Altitude+, the network's direct-to-consumer streaming service, and selected Nuggets and Avalanche games are simulcast over the air on KTVD and KUSA in the Denver market through the Tegna partnership. The network's 24/7 programming includes live Nuggets, Avalanche, Rapids, Mammoth and University of Denver games, pregame and postgame shows, and original team-focused programming. For channel information, streaming subscriptions and the latest broadcast schedule, visit the official website at altitudesports.com.