As I have said before, I love my monopoly-on-most-of-Ohio cable company, Time Warner Cable. We get perfect reception on each one of the nearly 70 channels we receive and it costs just over $70 with internet. (Side note: writing that last sentence made me have one of those really weird, "oh yeah, I live in Ohio." moments. I still am not used to it. Continue...) There has been a pretty entertaining battle lately in the media between my media conglomerate and the Big Ten Network. However, as I sit here on a Saturday afternoon with the option of watching West Virginia/Marshall, Oklahoma/Miami, or Nebraska/Wake Forest, I am pissed. Here's the problem.
The Big Ten Network is charging cable companies $1.10 per customer for rights. (They are charging a ridiculous $.10 per customer in non-Big 10 states). If everyone did this, Time Warner would have to pay $77 to all of my networks for me to watch them.
They vowed that the price is worth it because they are bringing loads of content to Big 10 Fans. Their website claims:
"...the Big Ten Network will feature shows produced by students from Big Ten Universities that will showcase academic breakthroughs, honored alumni, current students, renowned faculty, as well as the academic challenges to name a few."
A) It doesn't. #2) If it does eventually, I don't give a shit and neither does anyone else. We don't need a channel that is a commercial for local universities.
Here is what they are actually showing today: 4 hours of a show called "Big 10 Tonight", 6 hours of a show called "Friday Night Tailgate", 4 hours of a pregame show, postgame show, and evening wrap up, 2 hours of the 1999 Minnesota/Penn State game, and an impressive 7 football games. However, if you have the station on basic cable... you only end up getting to watch 2 football games on a football Saturday! The network doesn't add any more value than the ESPN/ESPN2/ABC Regional coverage. The scary thing is that they will be carrying 8 MSU basketball games, almost guaranteeing that I won't be able to watch any MSU games this year.
Cable companies have been extremely resistant because they know the Big 10 Network doesn't add value and is charging a ridiculous fee. While their negotiations are failing miserable, they decided to step up their ads. Their current commercials feature different Big 10 coaches making statements like "True Buckeye fans deserve the Big 10 Network." The league has grown too greedy and is forcing their coaches to make asses of themselves.
4 comments:
I agree completely. The Big 10 network is utter bullshit. Who's going to watch it during the summer when neither basketball nor football are in season? NOBODY!
The dangerous 3-named women of Michigan, Lou Anna Simon (MSU Pres) and Mary Sue Coleman (U-M Pres) said:
"This is an opportunity for our campuses to have more of a voice in how the university and
athletic content is presented. We did not want to see alcohol or tobacco advertising
embedded in our televised athletic events, for instance..."
TOBACCO ADS HAVE BEEN BANNED FROM TV SINCE 1971!
Bad news Kevin, MSU announced today 14 MSU Men's BBall games are on the Big Ten Network this year. You could only have 5 conference games televised. There are 4 games that could be on BTN or they could be on ESPN/CBS.
My cable here sucks so I might be getting Direct TV instead. I think they have a deal with the big ten network, so if I do end up switching, I might get to see the games anyway. Either way, it's bullshit.
Direct TV does have a deal with the BTN. All of them will eventually... they'll cave and slightly raise people's cable bills. People won't notice. The issue I have with it is that the Big 10 is being very arrogant about having their own network. It doesn't add any value than the local coverage on ESPN and ABC.
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