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Oh, here it is:

http://www.bigtennetwork.com/

Basically, the Big 10 is moving most of their programming to their own network, which will be available only at extra charge. Only problem is, some of the cable subscribers won't be able to even order it.

No likey. First of all, I can't get it if I wanted to. 2nd of all, why is it that if I want to see Wisconsin and Michigan, I'll also have to order the channel that carries Illinois-Northwestern?

I'm really hoping that the marquee games (Wisconsin-OSU, OSU-Michigan, etc) are still on free TV or ESPN.

It's times like this I wish we could take back our public funding of these greedy bastards.

That has been a big topic of conversation here in Buckeye Country, and the word is that 2 (maybe 4, I can't remember) Buckeye games this year will be on the Big 10 Network, the marquee games are going to be on cable or broadcast and no cable provider in the area has reached an agreement with the Big 10 Network.

The story is that the Network wants to be part of the regular cable lineup, to the tune of around $1.30 per customer (whether you watch it or not). TimeWarner (the biggest one around here) wants to make it part of an additional sports package and the B10N says "no."

Sucky part is, from what I hear, if a network outside of the Big 10 Conference wants the network they6 only have to pay around $0.30 per subscriber. Sucks. Anyway, that's what I know/have heard.

They interviewed Jim Delany (Big 10 commissioner) on the local ESPN affiliate today, and he said that the SEC is thinking of going the same direction. W. T. F.

idchafee wrote:

They interviewed Jim Delany (Big 10 commissioner) on the local ESPN affiliate today, and he said that the SEC is thinking of going the same direction. W. T. F.

They sure has heck had better not. It's not going to fly.
Not that I have anything to worry about since all of our games will be on ESP anyway

This whole BigTEN Network thing is pissing me off! It seems that all of the Iowa Hawkeye games are on BTN this year. And BTN and Mediacom can't seem to come to an agreement. BTN wants to be on the Basic cable package, but Mediacom insists on putting it on a higher priced tier. I'm not sure who to be mad at though...All I know is that the fans are getting screwed.

Oh well...the Hawks will probably suck this year anyhow. Go Cyclones!

Greedy bastards everywhere. I'm so sick of business models along the lines of "you got that free for all of recent history, well get ready to pay for it now."

JJCDAD wrote:

Oh well...the Hawks will probably suck this year anyhow. Go Cyclones!

You must not really be a Hawkeye fan

Based on the front page of TBTN's website, it appears that the greedy bastards are the cable operators, not the schools affiliated with the network. But then they do things like this that make me skeptical:

72% Amount of your cable bill that goes to either cable-operator profits or their non-programming costs.

Non-programming costs need paid by the subscribers, too, I'd think, along with the advertising that at least my local cable company sells to run over the top of national ads...I think the "cable-operator profits" percentage was too low for them to list separately and tug at sports fans' heart strings...

And then I read this from idchafee's link:

The Big Ten Network wants a home on what's called the extended basic tier of service, which would provide a much, much larger audience. It also wants Comcast to pay $1.10 per customer per month to the network. Comcast says that's way too high.

I am tempted to agree with Comcast here. I have roughly 65 channels on the "extended basic" tier of Insight's services. If every channel charged that, then my bill would be about $30 higher per month than it is now. So that tells me that this network is demanding WAY too much. So after doing enough (IMO) reading, I'm prepared to smack the schools and the network with that label instead. That's retarded.

and tfp is an Iowa fan, so he's going to start smacking JJCAD, too.

tfp wrote:

JJCDAD wrote:

Oh well...the Hawks will probably suck this year anyhow. Go Cyclones!

You must not really be a Hawkeye fan

Depends on your definition...I root for both, but root for the Cyclones when they play each other. I am not a fanatic for either.

awesome news! maybe now they will play some Big 12 games up here instead of all that big 10 carp!

haha i went to that website and sent them a thank you e-mail.

I wrote:

Awesome that you guys are insisting on your own network! I'm a big 12 fan in big 10 country.. maybe now ABC will finally start airing some Big 12 games here!

Thanks again!!

sadly, this probably wont affect any "real" games.. just the carpy games that no one would watch anyways. .. so, i'll probably still miss out on a few Husker games.

derFunkenstein wrote:

I am tempted to agree with Comcast here. I have roughly 65 channels on the "extended basic" tier of Insight's services. If every channel charged that, then my bill would be about $30 higher per month than it is now. So that tells me that this network is demanding WAY too much. So after doing enough (IMO) reading, I'm prepared to smack the schools and the network with that label instead. That's retarded.

Do ALL channels charge the cable operator? I would think some like HSN and such would actually have to PAY the cable operator to be carried. I would also guess that there are a lot of 'junk' channels that are thrown in for free as part of a package contract between the programmers and cable operators.

This is where some kind of a'la carte options would really help the consumer. On one hand a'la carte may kill off less popular channels, but on the other hand I'd be glad to pay $1.10/mo to get TBTN. I will not pay $15-$20/mo just to get a bunch of channels that I will not watch.

I would pay 1.10 a month per channel if I could pick the ~5 channels past the local channels I would want to watch.

Until there is an alacarte plan for cable, it will stay worthless.