Altitude Gives Comcast Attitude

Altitude Sports & Entertainment is putting the pressure on Comcast Corp.

The Colorado-based regional sports network launched an ad campaign to highlight the fact that it has not yet reached a deal with the MSO, AP reported.

"The deal is there to be done. Our question is: What's holding it up?" Altitude senior vice president of sales and marketing Tom Philand told AP.

Altitude will feature games from the National Basketball Association’s Denver Nuggets and the National Hockey League’s Colorado Avalanche. The NHL’s players are currently locked out, but the NBA season is less than one month away.

One of the ads features Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony with his jump shot obscured by a paintbrush. It says Comcast "devotes three channels to home decorating and none to the Nuggets," AP reported.

The network is also preparing a similar campaign targeted toward direct-broadcast satellite service DirecTV Inc., which it is also negotiating with, according to AP.

Altitude does have carriage deals in place with EchoStar Communications Corp.'s Dish Network DBS service, Adelphia Communications Corp. in Colorado Springs and several other smaller operators, totaling some 250,000 subscribers, AP reported.