Denver Nuggets Fans Try To Find Ways Around TV Blackout Ahead Of Friday's Home Opener

DENVER (CBS4) - On Wednesday the Denver Nuggets open their 2019/2020 season playing in Portland against the Trailblazers. Gabe Ojeda is ready. He even bought tickets to the Nuggets home opener Friday.

"I'm going to be sitting down pretty low so I'm excited to see the Nuggets in action," he said.

Aside from buying tickets, seeing the games otherwise might be a challenge due to the well-publicized dispute between Altitude TV and three of Denver's major TV carriers.

"It's going to be really difficult," Ojeda said.

One option he has heard of: illegal game streams on the internet.

Nathan Evans, a professor of cyber security at the University of Denver explains, "Basically, anyone who has access to the sports games and a computer and a good internet connection can basically take what they are watching on their TV and stream it out to the internet."

Evans says if you stream sports you're taking a risk. It's illegal to stream and download copyrighted content and the copyright owner could come after you.

More likely though, if you choose the wrong stream you could be exposing your computer to harm.

"If they are asking you to install software, like if they say you need a player to watch this video usually that's a lie, and it's some sort of ransomware or something that is going to turn your computer into a bot to perform attacks on the internet," said Evans.

Ojeda knows people who use streaming sites, but he says he doesn't. Until the Nuggets are back on TV, he is just going to have to find another way follow them. It doesn't dampen his excitement for his team.

"We're ready and we're looking for a fight," he said.

Evans says in general it's probably a good idea to make sure your anti-virus software is updated and you have a strong VPN on your computer, but especially if you are going to be an internet scofflaw which he doesn't recommend.