X1 DVR records blacked-out Avalanche broadcast instead of available Altitude broadcast

I'm experiencing an extremely frustrating issue with X1 DVR recordings of Colorado Avalanche games.

I subscribe to Altitude Sports specifically so I can watch the Avalanche in Colorado. When an Avalanche game is simultaneously carried on Altitude and a national network, the national broadcast may be blacked out locally while the Altitude broadcast is available.

Instead of recording the available Altitude broadcast, X1 sometimes chooses the national channel and records the BLACKOUT SCREEN.

The obvious solution would be to tell X1, "Always record Avalanche games from Altitude." Unfortunately, that option doesn't exist. Under the series recording "Channels" setting, my only choices are **HD Preferred** and **SD Preferred**. There is no "This Channel" option and no way to prioritize Altitude.

Manually going through the schedule and individually recording every game from Altitude is not a reasonable solution. The entire purpose of a team/series recording is to avoid having to do that.

More importantly, this apparently isn't a new or Avalanche-specific problem.

Other Xfinity customers have reported the same behavior when X1 chooses a national broadcast that is blacked out instead of an available local/regional broadcast, including:

• "Unusable DVR Sporting Event recordings" (2026) — national sports channel selected instead of the available local broadcast, resulting in a blackout recording.

• "Phillies game not recorded on correct DVR channel" (2025) — X1 selected blacked-out TBS instead of the available local Phillies broadcast.

• "DVR Recording" (2024) — similar problem with TBS/local Phillies broadcasts, with other customers reporting the same behavior for NFL games.

• "Live Sports" (2021) — Warriors customer reported X1 selecting blacked-out ESPN instead of the available local sports network.

Xfinity representatives have acknowledged in previous Community discussions that customers cannot prioritize which channel X1 records.

This shouldn't be treated as a question about NHL blackout rules. **The blackout itself isn't the problem.**

The problem is that Xfinity knows:

1. The two listings represent the same sporting event.

2. The national broadcast is unavailable to the subscriber because of a blackout.

3. The Altitude broadcast is available and included in the subscriber's package.

4. Yet the DVR selects the unavailable broadcast anyway.

At minimum, X1 should provide an **"Always record from this channel"** option for team recordings. Better yet, the DVR should automatically prefer an authorized local/regional broadcast over a blacked-out national broadcast.