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Time Warner execs: Not much BTN interest
Friday, December 14, 2007
Time Warner Cable's last offer to the Big Ten Network — which came a couple months ago — was so low ball, Big Ten Network president Mark Silverman says he doesn't see any resolution in the near future.
Time Warner offered to put the BTN on its expanded basic tier for no compensation, only the Big Ten's ability to generate its own advertising dollars.
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"Their offer, if you call it that, was we'll carry our network for free," Silverman said. "We have all these deals done, 175 deals already in place. We have Wide Open West, Insight Cable in addition to the satellite guys as well as 160 other cable companies. Every deal we have is carrying us on expanded basic.
"We're in negotiations with Comcast and Charter and Mediacom. Time Warner is really the only one we have yet to talk to for many months. They're the only operator I've seen that has taken the stance they've had, which is basically they're not interested."
Time Warner's take, as you can imagine, is much different.
The last time Time Warner looked — and it looks every day — the mega cable company was "not getting disconnection on this issue" of the Big Ten Network.
"In Columbus, we've had some," Time Warner's spokesperson in New York said. "Outside of Columbus, it's not a big issue.
"Most avid sports fans already have satellite. They went to DirecTV 4 to 5 years ago."
Silverman had an idea Time Warner would say something like that. When the BTN received TW's free-space offer, "we thought we were missing something. We're so far apart.
"They had a meeting a couple weeks ago with Fox Distribution, and it didn't come up. They discussed other Fox networks, but not ours."
Silverman said the Big Ten Network can be successful without Time Warner, and TW can secure a better deal than the smaller carriers because of its size. Still, Silverman can't give away his product to the detriment of other deals already signed.
Time Warner says its customers don't want added channels – and costs — they won't use. There is a following for the Food Channel, for MTV, for Spike.
"When companies in the East that don't have college sports as a fabric of the community are the ones making decisions, they're uninformed, and they don't understand how integrated Ohio State is in the state of Ohio," Silverman said. "When Ohio State plays football or basketball, it's the top-rated show."
Ohio State has 15 games remaining on BTN, including Saturday night's with Presbyterian College. Time Warner says you're not interested in that game, and may be right. Silverman says, if you're a Buckeye fan, Go Bucks.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157
or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.
