On Wednesday, the Houston Rockets and Houston Astros jointly announced the launch of their new streaming app, SCHN+, a spin on their shared regional sports network, Space City Home Network. The app will provide live game and other content for fans of the two franchises starting at $19.99 per month or free with a subscription to an affiliated cable or streaming service provider. It’s available through a browser or via most streaming platforms like iOS, Android, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.
The development is significant for Houston sports fans who want access to their teams wherever they go, something that is more and more common, particularly among younger followers. Perhaps more critically, it provides a potential off ramp for cable subscribers who have been reluctant to get rid of what is rapidly becoming an outdated and expensive service because it was the only way to see Astros and Rockets games.
Cord cutters have touted the advantages of freeing themselves from cumbersome cable subscriptions while sports fans muttered in the corner, unable to disconnect if they wanted to see games for the franchises they love. This could substantively alter that dynamic for some.
Currently, the SCHN+ app is free if you subscribe to DirecTV, ATT, iNet or FubuTV, but not yet for Xfinity/Comcast subscribers. According to the Rockets, they are working to bring the region’s largest cable provider on board as soon as possible. Currently, Xfinity has its own streaming app, but you can only access live television if you are connected to an Xfinity wi-fi account, a huge limitation considering you don’t really need the app if you are sitting in front of a cable-connected television. For anyone on the fence about their cable subscription, a 20-dollar app might push them over, so it would behoove Xfinity to get on that.
The primary limitation of the SCHN+ app, as with all sports programming, remains territorial blackouts. For those of you who live in Austin (or New York or Chicago) and thought this was your chance to catch Rockets and Astros games, you’ll be disappointed. This app won’t help you and the only way to see your favorite Houston teams is by ponying up for MLB TV or NBA League Pass. These blackouts are antiquated remnants of a time when local TV and its ad revenue reigned supreme for many franchises unwilling to lose potential viewers to other teams outside of their region.
With recent failures of regional sports networks and commissioners from both the NBA and MLB on record saying they ultimately want control over their own programming to lessen blackout restrictions and improve access for fans, those territorial constraints could eventually be a thing of the past. But nothing will happen before many current local TV deals expire and, in the case of baseball, they deal with a potential labor stoppage after next season.
The release of the SCHN+ app, on the heels of the launch of Space City Home Network before the start of the 2025 Astros season, represents a level of stability that is the envy of many sports franchises without such agreements. As advertising revenue has dried up and the costs to investors has become too much to bear, some teams scrambling for local television coverage, nevermind a sophisticated streaming option, something the Astros and Rockets know all too well.
Prior to Space City Home Network, the Rockets and Astros, then owned by Leslie Alexander and Drayton McClane, respectively, partnered on the now defunct CSN Houston. When that network folded in 2013, the teams eventually found a temporary home on AT&T Sportsnet before the launch of Space City Home Network, which occupies the former studios of CSN. The fallout from CSN’s collapse included a lawsuit between current Astros owner Jim Crane and McClane over the latter’s valuation of the CSN network as part of the sale of the team. That suit was just settled in July of this year.
For fans, this is a move that has been long awaited. As more and more sports watchers move away from traditional cable services and even from televisions for the convenience and portability of streaming, local sports remain beyond the technological divide for most teams. To have two teams in the same city owned by two different people collaborating on a network and a streaming app is remarkable. It’s a big win for the Astros and Rockets, and a potential cost savings for fans ready to cut the cord, finally.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.