Altitude TV lifts blackout for Game 5 of Nuggets-Timberwolves series
Nuggets Jamal Murray controls the ball, but gets a foul on this play against Mike Conley during the fourth quarter. Many in the crowd felt it was a flop. Murray had 40 points in the game. The Nuggets defeated the Timberwolves 122-113 to take an 2-0 lead in Round 1 of the playoffs at Ball Arena on Wednesdday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
The telecast of Game 5 of the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves first round playoff series will not be blacked out in Denver, the NBA announced Tuesday morning.
Altitude Sports waived its exclusive regional rights, the NBA said on its website, to block the 7 p.m. game at Ball Arena. The game will also be broadcast nationally on the NBA’s streaming platform, NBA TV. (During the first round of the playoffs, local broadcasters can invoke a blackout per NBA policy.)
Both Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche games have not been available to local viewers since 2019 when Altitude Sports — a Kroenke Sports and Entertainment-owned regional sports network (RSN) with exclusive local broadcast rights — and Comcast failed to renew their contract.
Since then, games have been televised on other platforms — DirectTV and FuboTV — but their reach does not match the 92 percent of cable customers in Colorado who subscribe to Comcast. (Evoca TV also carried games but went out of business in late 2022.)
The impasse between Comcast and Altitude has resisted mediation and an anti-trust lawsuit that was settled in mid-March, but that failed to resolve the dispute.
Denver leads the series against Minnesota 3-1.




