Matt Hutchings, the Kroenke Sports and Entertainment executive who oversaw Altitude TV, has resigned from his position as chief operating officer and executive vice president of the company that owns the Nuggets and Avalanche.
Hutchings held the position since 2013 and was president and CEO of KSE Media Ventures. His resignation came amid the ongoing standoff between Altitude and Comcast, Colorado’s largest cable provider. Comcast has not carried Altitude TV since 2019, preventing local customers from watching the majority of Nuggets and Avalanche game broadcasts.
“I am grateful for the professional opportunities and thrilling experiences that have come with my time at KSE,” Hutchings said in a news release announcing his resignation. “We have realized tremendous growth as a company and seen unprecedented success among our teams. I will be watching and cheering KSE on as they continue to lead the way in sports, broadcasting, and entertainment in Colorado and beyond.”
Hutchings also worked in management for Altitude between 2004 and 2012, when he left Kroenke and was appointed president of Comcast Sportsnet Houston. He rejoined Kroenke and Altitude the next year.
Altitude first sued Comcast shortly after its carriage deal ended in September 2019, accusing the cable company of violating antitrust laws. The parties settled in March 2023, but the agreement did not return the regional sports network to Comcast’s platforms. Altitude is available in Colorado on DirecTV, Fubo TV and Charter.
The contract impasse has coincided with widespread strife for regional sports networks and a revolution in live sports streaming. The RSN that broadcasted Colorado Rockies games (AT&T Sportsnet) ceased operations last year, forcing Major League Baseball to take over the team’s broadcasts for this upcoming season. Rockies games will be available to stream on Rockies.tv, but the franchise has yet to reveal a cable television option.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver indicated during the 2023 NBA Finals that while the league doesn’t control local rights involving the Nuggets, one central theme while working on the NBA’s next media rights deal has been the decreasingly clear delineation between “national” games and local games from a fan perspective. A number of NBA and NHL teams have transitioned to streaming arrangements and over-the-air broadcasts in recent years.
“We have an opportunity now to redesign how fans can receive games,” Silver said last June. “It’s clear to me that, where I’m saying it’s on us (the league), the last thing we want to do is disenfranchise fans. Not that it should be any different, but particularly when you have a Finals-caliber team and we know that there’s intense interest in seeing these games. I’m very sympathetic to fans, and I get a lot of emails and I’ve seen on social media and just comments while I’m here in town of people saying, ‘This makes absolutely no sense that I can’t watch games.’ I think we have to own this issue.”
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