The St. Louis Blues are putting their local broadcasts under their own roof, launching Blue Note+, a fully owned multimedia network that gives the team direct control over how fans watch the games. The move comes through agreements with Spectrum and Prime Video, and it marks a major shift away from the recent headaches tied to regional sports networks, carriage fights and blackouts.
Blue Note+ - pronounced “Blue Note Plus” - will be the exclusive local home for 73 regular-season Blues home games this season. The other 11 games will air nationally on ABC, ESPN, ESPN+ and TNT.
The club says the new setup gives it a chance to shape the broadcast from top to bottom. Over the summer, the Blues built a cloud-connected control room inside the Enterprise Center, a setup designed to let the crew produce road games with the same quality as home telecasts. The team also installed new stationary and robotic cameras for home games and upgraded the graphics, replay tools and studio support with help from the NHL’s centralized production group.
"Having total ownership of our broadcast product will allow us to deliver Blues hockey with direct access to more fans in more places than ever before," said Chris Zimmerman, Blues President and CEO of Business Operations. "We appreciate the ongoing patience and support of the Blues fanbase over the last few months as we work to build a local broadcast platform that is worthy of their passion for this team."
For fans inside the team’s five-state broadcast territory, there are two main ways to watch. Spectrum will carry the games for cable viewers, and the Blues said they are still negotiating with other local cable and satellite providers.
Streaming will run through Prime Video in the local market, where Blue Note+ costs $19.99 per month or $99.99 for a yearly package. Fans only need a free Amazon account to buy the subscription. The service is not live yet, but fans can sign up to get updates when it becomes available.
Out-of-market viewers won’t see a change in how they follow the team. Those games will still be available through NHL Center Ice on Spectrum or NHL Power Play on the ESPN app.
The broadcast faces are staying the same. Chris Kerber and Joey Vitale are back in the booth for their eighth straight season together, and it’s Kerber’s 26th season calling Blues games. Andy Strickland returns as studio host, with Bernie Federko and Jamie Rivers as analysts, while Cam Janssen will join the desk as a guest analyst during the season.
Radio coverage also remains unchanged. Blues games will continue on 101 ESPN, the Blues mobile app and the St. Louis Blues Radio Network, with Kerber and Vitale on the call and Alex Ferrario handling pregame, intermission and postgame coverage.
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