Regional sports networks continue to lose distribution footing in the eroding pay TV ecosystem.

SportsNet Pittsburgh, which was recently cast off by AT&T and put under the control of its two main pro-team tenants, Major League Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates and the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins, with day-to-day management handled by co-owner New England Sports Network, just took a significant tier bump with its Comcast renewal, the the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.

SportsNet Pittsburgh will no longer be available on the No. 1 U.S. pay TV operator's $70-a-month "Popular TV" tier in the local Pittsburgh region. Local Comcast subscribers who want the channel will now instead have to pay an additional $20 a month for the more sports-loaded "Ultimate TV" package.

Also read: Better Late Than Never: Charter to Drive Down the Cost of Pay TV With Groundbreaking New Distribution Strategy for Regional Sports Networks

“Most of our customers who receive the network today already have Ultimate TV, and our viewership information shows that they are the ones primarily watching it, so that’s why we’re making this change,” Comcast said in a statement. “We appreciate SportsNet Pittsburgh working with us to find a solution that balances cost and consumer choice to watch local sports in this changing video marketplace.”

RSN providers have long exerted pressure to make pay TV operators carry their channels in base tiers. With those economics making non-sports fans flee in droves to cheaper direct-to-consumer streaming options, RSNs have lost leverage and are now beginning to move to more premium programming tiers. 

The sports world continues to be challenged by COVID-19 as numerous pro and college sports events have been postponed or cancelled this Thanksgiving weekend due to the pandemic.

In the NFL, the Baltimore Ravens-Pittsburgh Steelers game has been postponed a second time and will now be played on Tuesday night as more Ravens players have tested positive for the virus. At least 18 Ravens players have now tested positive for the virus, including Ravens quarterback and last year’s league MVP Lamar Jackson, according to ESPN.com.

The game was originally scheduled for Thanksgiving night Nov. 26, then earlier this week was moved to Nov. 29 before settling in on Dec. 1. The Ravens’ Dec. 3 Thursday Night Football game against the Dallas Cowboys has also been rescheduled and will  take place on Dec. 7, with Fox airing the game.

The Ravens-Steelers game is the second NFL game to be played on a Tuesday night this season, following the Oct. 13  Buffalo Bills-Tennessee Titans game, which was moved from its original Sunday, Oct. 11 date due to a COVID-19 outbreak within the Tennessee franchise. 

On the college football front, at least 12 games have been cancelled this weekend due to COVID-19, including several games featuring ranked teams. Fourth-ranked Ohio State’s game with Illinois was postponed due to positive COVID-19 test results within the Buckeyes’ program. Other postponed or cancelled games include seventh-ranked Cincinnati against Temple, 11th-ranked Oklahoma and West Virginia and 16th-ranked Wisconsin against Minnesota -- marking the first time those Big Ten teams haven’t played each other in a season since 1906.

College basketball began its 2020-21 season this past week as more than 40 of the 357 Division I programs have paused or have canceled their season altogether due to COVID-19 concerns, including top-ranked schools Baylor and Duke, according to USAToday.com.  

Despite the cancellations, there’s still a lot of live sports action on television this weekend. Third-ranked Clemson will return to the college football field Saturday against Pittsburgh (ESPN), leading a number of rivalry week games that include top-ranked Alabama against 22nd-ranked Auburn (CBS) and fifth-ranked Texas A&M against LSU (ESPN). 

On the pro front, CBS’ Kansas City-Tampa Bay game highlights the league's national afternoon games, while NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast pits Chicago against Green Bay in an NFC North division matchup.

On the pay-per-view front, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson returns to the ring in an exhibition boxing match against Roy Jones Jr. The fight card can be purchased online at $49.99 through FITE.tv and TysonOnTriller.com as well as through traditional cable distributors via In Demand.

The NFL has moved its Baltimore Ravens-Pittsburgh Steelers Thanksgiving night game to Sunday after several Ravens players tested positive for COVID-19.

The league said the game -- one of three NFL games scheduled for Nov. 26 -- will be played Sunday afternoon “out of an abundance of caution” after seven Ravens players -- including running backs Mark Ingram and J.K. Dobbins -- tested positive for coronavirus, according to ESPN.com.

The game is the 13th of the 2020 NFL season that has been postponed or moved due to coronavirus-related issues, said ESPN.

The two other Thanksgiving day games -- Houston Texans-Detroit Lions and Washington Team-Dallas Cowboys -- will be played as scheduled.

The NFL Thursday said it will now push the Pittsburgh Steelers-Tennessee Titans game to later in the season after more Titans players and staff tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. 

In a statement, the league said the week four game initially slated for this Sunday will be "rescheduled to later in the season" after a Titans player and personnel member tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the number to 11 team members, according to CBS.com. The Titans facility, which was closed earlier this week, will remain closed and the team will continue to have no in-person activities until further notice, said the statement.

The announcement comes a day after the league said it had hoped to play the game either Monday or Tuesday night. 

As the NFL looks to manage COVID-19 outbreaks, Major League Baseball is planning to allow limited fan attendance to its National League Championship Series and World Series games to be held in Texas, according to the New York Times. 

The games will be held in Arlington at the Texas Rangers' new retractable-roof stadium -- the first time the World Series will be held at a neutral site. The league will make 11,500 tickets available per game to sit in the stands and in luxury suites, according to the Times. 

The league will not sell tickets to division series games, which will be held in Houston and Arlington for the National League and in Los Angeles and San Diego for the American League. The league is also not planning to sell tickets to the A.L. Championship Series, which will be played in San Diego, according to the report.  

The National Football League has postponed the Oct. 4 Tennessee Titans-Pittsburgh Steelers game after several Titans players tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, according to ESPN. 

The league Wednesday said in a Tweet that the game would be rescheduled “to allow additional time for further daily COVID-19 testing and to ensure the health and safety of the players, coaches and game day personnel." Four Titans players as well as five team personnel members tested positive for the virus this week, according to ESPN.

In its statement, the NFL said the Titans-Steelers game could be played as early as Monday or Tuesday. In the meantime, the Titans have closed their team facilities through Saturday, according to ESPN. 

The postponement marks the first game affected by the COVID-19 outbreak since the league launched its season four weeks ago. The postponement comes as college football looks to ramp up play on the field. Last week the Pac-12 voted to play a seven-game, conference only season beginning Nov. 6, joining the Big Ten in reversing initial season cancellations due to the pandemic.  

ESPN’s Pittsburgh Steelers-New York Giants Monday Night Football telecast drew 10.7 million viewers, falling short of last year’s MNF opening game numbers, according to Nielsen.

Audience numbers for the game, won by the Steelers 26-16, were down from the 13.1 million viewers that tuned into the Sept. 10, 2019 New Orleans Saints-Houston Texans MNF opener, according to Nielsen. The Steelers-Giants game finished as the third most watched sports event on cable in 2020 -- behind ESPN’s Jan. 13 LSU-Clemson College Football Playoff National Championship Game, and its Jan. 1 Oregon-Wisconsin Rose Bowl Game telecast.

The game also fell short of Fox News’ Feb. 4 live telecast of the State of the Union address, which drew 11 million viewers, said Nielsen. 

The second game of ESPN’s MNF doubleheader telecast between the Tennessee Titans and the Denver Broncos drew 7.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

Altice USA's request that CBS-affiliate WFSB in Connecticut unblock programming to its customers in the state for the National Football League’s AFC Championship game on Jan. 22, pitting the local favorite New England Patriots vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers, has been stuffed.

WFSB, which broadcasts to a small portion of Altice USA customers in Litchfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut, went dark on Jan. 13 after the parties could not reach a retransmission consent agreement. Altice USA said the bulk of its Connecticut customers can see the game via the New York CBS affiliate (WCBS). The cable operator has also offered customers a free trial of CBS All Access, the over-the-top offering from the broadcaster, to watch the playoffs and other network content online. 

The fact that WFSB has not unblocked the channel shouldn’t be surprising. Going dark is usually a station’s only leverage in retrans negotiations and compelling event programming – like NFL playoff games – is usually what gets the parties to reach a compromise.

On its website, WFSB called Altice USA an “outlier,” adding that it has reached retrans agreements with every other distributor with no disruption in service.

“Without fair and equitable treatment, local TV stations will not be able to continue to provide top quality news, sports, entertainment, and other local programming that is most important to you,” WFSB said on its website.

Officials at WFSB parent Meredith Corp. did not immediately return a request for comment.

Altice USA said this is the second time its request to make the channel available for the NFL playoffs has been denied – it made the same plea for the Patriot’s Jan. 14 meeting with the Houston Texans in the AFC divisional playoff. Meredith refused that request even though the two U.S. Senators representing the state – Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Christopher Murphy – had asked the channel be made available to Altice customers while talks continued.

“We’ve heard from our Litchfield and New Haven customers and know they want to watch the Patriots game this weekend,” Altice USA said in a statement. “We’re frustrated too and think it’s outrageous that WFSB refuses to put the channel back on for our customers as we continue our negotiations. We have asked WFSB and its owners repeatedly to stop holding our customers hostage. If WFSB cares about its viewers then why won’t they agree to put the game on?”