Altitude Sports and Entertainment is a
regional sports networkIn the United States of America and Canada, a regional sports network, or RSN, is a cable television station that presents sports programming to a local market. The most important programming on an RSN consists of live broadcasts of professional and college sporting events, as those games generate...
that serves the Rocky Mountain region, specifically Denver. It officially launched on Sept. 4, 2004.
It was launched by Stan Kroenke, who owns the
Denver NuggetsThe Denver Nuggets are a professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. They play in the National Basketball Association . They were founded as the Denver Rockets in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association, and became one of that league's more successful teams...
of the
NBAThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
, the
Colorado AvalancheThe Colorado Avalanche are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver, Colorado, United States. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The Avalanche have won the Stanley Cup twice, in 1995–96 and 2000–01. The franchise...
of the
NHLThe National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
, the
Colorado RapidsThe Colorado Rapids are an American professional soccer club based in the Denver suburb of Commerce City, Colorado which competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having competed in the league...
of
MLSMajor League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...
, the
Colorado MammothThe Colorado Mammoth are a member of the National Lacrosse League. They have played at Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, United States, since the 2003 season....
of the
NLLThe National Lacrosse League is a men's professional indoor lacrosse league in North America. It currently has nine teams; three in Canada and six in the United States. Unlike other lacrosse leagues which play in the summer, the NLL plays its games in the winter and spring. Each year, the playoff...
, and is a major shareholder of Arsenal FC of the Premier League. Altitude features in-depth coverage of all four of these teams, including broadcasting the majority of the Avalanche and Nuggets games and Rapids matches. Entertainment programming includes live
theatreTheatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and music concerts.
Altitude is also home to the
Colorado RockiesThe Colorado Rockies are a Major League Baseball team based in Denver, Colorado. Established in 1991, they started play in 1993 and are in the West Division of the National League. The team is named after the Rocky Mountains...
Triple A Baseball affiliate (
Colorado Springs Sky SoxThe Colorado Springs Sky Sox are a minor league baseball team in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The team's colors are red and blue. The team plays in the Pacific Coast League and are the Triple-A affiliate of the major league Colorado Rockies...
) and the
Colorado EaglesThe Colorado Eagles are a professional ice hockey team based in Loveland, Colorado. The Eagles play in the Mountain Division of the ECHL's Western Conference, where they serve as the "Double-A" affiliate of the National Hockey League's Winnipeg Jets and the American Hockey League's St. John's IceCaps...
of the
Central Hockey LeagueThe Central Hockey League is a mid-level professional hockey league, owned by Global Entertainment Corporation. Its current champions are the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, which defeated the Colorado Eagles four games to three in the 2011 playoffs....
. Altitude has contracts allowing them to broadcast live college football games from the
WACThe Western Athletic Conference is an American collegiate athletic conference, which was formed on July 27, 1962, making it the sixth oldest of the 11 college athletic conferences currently participating in the NCAA's Division I FBS...
and the
Big Sky ConferenceThe Big Sky Conference is an intercollegiate college athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I, with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. The BSC was founded in 1963. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the states of Arizona,...
. Additional collegiate games come from the
Rocky Mountain Athletic ConferenceThe Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference which operates in the western United States, mostly in Colorado with some members in Nebraska and New Mexico...
. They are an
ESPN PlusESPN Plus, the popular name of ESPN Regional Television, is an American television program syndicator. ERT is based along with sister network ESPNU in Charlotte, North Carolina...
affiliate in football for the
SEC NetworkThe SEC Network, or SECN is a syndication package featuring college football and basketball events from the Southeastern Conference. The package is owned and operated by ESPN Regional Television and is shown in more than 50 percent of households in the United States, mostly Southeastern United...
, the
Western Athletic ConferenceThe Western Athletic Conference is an American collegiate athletic conference, which was formed on July 27, 1962, making it the sixth oldest of the 11 college athletic conferences currently participating in the NCAA's Division I FBS...
and the Big East Network. They also broadcast select games from the
WAC Sports NetworkThe Western Athletic Conference is an American collegiate athletic conference, which was formed on July 27, 1962, making it the sixth oldest of the 11 college athletic conferences currently participating in the NCAA's Division I FBS...
, and they get to rebroadcast any WAC games that air on the ESPN Family of Networks. For college basketball they maintain Big Sky rights and WAC rights, but they broadcast a package of games from the Big 12 Network over the Big East and the SEC.
Bill Owens, the former
governor of ColoradoThe Governor of Colorado is the head of the executive branch of Colorado's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Colorado General Assembly, to convene the...
, hosted a
talk showA talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
on the network during the final two years of his administration. Also in the Altitude lineup is a
simulcastSimulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
of a radio show co-hosted by veteran
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
refereeA referee is the person of authority, in a variety of sports, who is responsible for presiding over the game from a neutral point of view and making on the fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport...
Irv BrownDenver, Colorado native sports broadcaster Irv Brown has been called "Denver's go-to guy" for sports talk or sports action commentary.Brown earned seven letters at North High School, where he starred in football, basketball and baseball. He played basketball and baseball at the University of...
.
Altitude also has an overflow channel for when game times overlap called
Altitude 2.
Altitude HD
Altitude HD is a
1080i1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...
high definitionHigh-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
simulcast of Altitude Sports and Entertainment. Altitude Sports and Entertainment shows Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche games in HD. Altitude has no plans for producing Colorado Rapids soccer matches in HD. The channel has announced it will produce all of its Nuggets and Avalanche games in HD starting in the 2009-10 seasons.
Altitude 2 is also available in HD.