Cold weather arrives
2008 World AIDS Day
Canine Christmas
Big Ten still pushing for an agreement with Time Warner
Big Ten wants its new channel on basic cable; Time Warner wants it on digital tier, so only customers who want it have to pay extra.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Unless Time Warner Cable and the Big Ten Network reach a deal in the next two months, most local Ohio State football fans won't be able to see the Buckeyes' first two football games in their homes.
The network announced Tuesday that it will televise 17 games in the first three weeks of the Big Ten football season, with different regions getting different games. Included in the 17 are OSU's home dates against Youngstown State (Sept. 1) and Akron (Sept. 8). The BTN is not currently offered on Time Warner.
Extras
Both Jim Delany, the Big Ten Conference commissioner, and a Time Warner official said Thursday that negotiations continue on the Big Ten Network, a cable channel that will launch in August and exclusively broadcast at least 35 Big Ten football games, as well as hundreds of other conference athletic events.
The BTN has deals with DirecTV, AT&T, Buckeye CableSystem and about 40 smaller cable and satellite providers, but none with the country's top two distributors, Comcast and Time Warner.
BTN officials are demanding to be placed on the most basic level of service, while the cable companies generally would like to place the network on an optional sports tier that requires an additional fee.
"I don't think this is a niche network," Delany said during a conference call marking the one-year anniversary of the network's announcement. "I don't think by any stretch of the imagination this is a niche network."
Delany demanded an apology from Comcast for recent comments by the cable company characterizing some Big Ten contests as "second and third tier."
"The comments are an insult to Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin," Delany said in a statement released after the press conference. "To the universities, their students, their fans and alumni and their communities. There are no second-rate contests in the Big Ten."
Five Buckeyes games have not yet been assigned for television, and more will likely be broadcast on the BTN.
Mark Silverman, the BTN president, has said he expects the network to broadcast up to four Ohio State football games this season.
The games will be shown regionally, meaning different games will be broadcast to different BTN markets.
"We're encouraged we're going to have full coverage," said Steve Snapp, the Ohio State athletics department spokesman.
Time Warner would like the network to be on a digital tier, like the one it offers for $2.95 per month that includes Fox Sports Digital Atlantic, Fox Sports Digital Central, Fox Sports Digital Pacific, NBA TV, the Tennis Channel, Fuel and College Sports TV.
The BTN has said that's not an option.
"We know that these games are very important to a select group of our customer fan base," said Karen Baxter, a spokeswoman for Time Warner, which serves 640,000 customers in the Dayton-Cincinnati area. "We do believe the best place for this network is on the sports tier so the customers who want it can get it, but we're not asking every customer to pay for it."
Delany stopped short Thursday of saying fans in the eight Big Ten states should switch providers if theirs doesn't carry the network, but he said that could change by August.
"June 21 is not the time to be jumping off the bridge," Delany said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com
