UPDATE (Oct. 3): As of Thursday, Altitude Sports hasn’t agreed to renew deals with their three largest distributors, so the Avalanche’s season opener against the Flames will not be shown on Comcast, Dish or DirecTV.

The original story — with a list of other Altitude distributors — from Sept. 12 is below:

If puck drops on Oct. 3 and Altitude Sports still hasn’t agreed to renew deals with their three biggest distributors — Comcast, Dish and DIRECTV — what options do Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets fans have to watch broadcasts?

The two biggest distributors that still carry Altitude Sports are Charter Communications and CenturyLink Prism TV. Viewers with those carriers can still watch the Kroenke-owned network.

Besides those two options, there are 21 independent networks still carrying Altitude that reach states from Colorado to Wyoming to Nebraska to Montana.

Outside of that, options are limited, though one person familiar with negotiations stressed the network was researching all options as the regular-season openers inch closer for both franchises. That includes “exploring” a potential streaming option with Amazon, as The Denver Post reported last week.

As of Thursday, the three primary distributors have been “uncommunicative” in working toward a resolution, according to another person familiar with discussions.

NBA League Pass and the NHL’s Center Ice aren’t viable workarounds due to rights restrictions. Fans in the Denver area (and beyond, in some cases) would be blacked out of local broadcasts since Altitude still has the exclusive rights for both teams.

One potential silver lining: the Nuggets are slated to be on national television 17 times this upcoming season (nine on ESPN, eight on TNT).

“We’re still broadcasting to a lot of Avs and Nuggets fans where that reach is, and we are not going to do anything different,” Altitude executive VP Kenny Miller said. “We’re here to service as many fans as possible. Hopefully it’ll be Comcast, DIRECTV and DISH subscribers as soon as puck drops on (Oct.) third. We’re (still) going to broadcast the games.”

Even considering the unusual circumstances, Miller said there was no chance the leagues would lift the local blackouts.

“We’re still the rights holders,” Miller said. “The teams and their televisions rights deals have to be protected.”

Though the NBA and NHL are monitoring the situation, it’s unclear what level of involvement either has taken in the discussions at this point.

Altitude distributors