Time Warner Cable -- Big Ten Network!

[mauchow]

YAY!!!!

I get to watch Big 10 Network on Time Warner Cable. How about that? Just in time for the season, too. I nearly went out and got satellite for this reason, plus some... now I just might delay. But I also still might do it. We'll see, but this makes me in no hurry.

[PackerFanatic]

I heard this last night, hooray!

Now we just need NFL Network and we will be all set.

[PackerFanatic]

Oh wow, looks like BTN worked out a deal with Charter as well. Bout time this crap gets resolved.

[mauchow]

Sorry to the fans outside of the 8 states of Big 10 Football, but you will not get BTN quite yet... soon though as I hear.

[Passacaglia]

There might have been a thread about this already, but Comcast also will have the Big Ten Network for this coming football and basketball season. It's a "preview" I guess, which means that Comcast will "try it out" for that period, and after that, they have the option to move it to their sports package (and I don't see why they wouldn't). Luckily, RCN (which already has BTN) offered us a better deal anyway, so I didn't have to factor that into our decision at all.

[DanGarion]

Yeah they announced this internally 2 days ago. I haven't seen any info about it coming anywhere other then the states that the Big-10 is in...

[Honolulu_Blue]

We've had the Big Ten network on Comcast in Michigan for the last week or two.

I have already watched a good part of the last year's Michigan/Florida bowl game, the 1997 Ohio State/Michigan game, and I think I have the Michigan/Alabama bowl game that went into OT on the DVR.

Other than watching old Michigan football games and maybe the ocassional college football game, I don't see myself watching too much Big Ten Network.

Still, I'd rather have it than not have it.

[Butter]

I've had Big Ten Network since it's inception. I've watched some Ohio State-centric programming. I don't think I've actually watched anything on there all summer.

The channel is way too restrictive to survive. It's like trying to plan an entire channel around Christmas. Sure, people will love it about 2 months a year. The rest of the year, it'll be lucky to score a Nielsen of 0.01.

[hhiipp]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

I've had Big Ten Network since it's inception. I've watched some Ohio State-centric programming. I don't think I've actually watched anything on there all summer.

The channel is way too restrictive to survive. It's like trying to plan an entire channel around Christmas. Sure, people will love it about 2 months a year. The rest of the year, it'll be lucky to score a Nielsen of 0.01.

That is pretty much what I was typing but decided to let them try to enjoy their own disappointment.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

Will we have to pay extra or will it be added automatically?

[hhiipp]

This is what I got from the rumor mill - as you have the TW box you're getting the service for an increase of $3 a month. If you only have the basic service without the box you would not get the channel.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

thanks

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by hhiipp

This is what I got from the rumor mill - as you have the TW box you're getting the service for an increase of $3 a month. If you only have the basic service without the box you would not get the channel.

What a bunch of crap -- looks like BTN won that battle.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

I've had Big Ten Network since it's inception. I've watched some Ohio State-centric programming. I don't think I've actually watched anything on there all summer.

The channel is way too restrictive to survive. It's like trying to plan an entire channel around Christmas. Sure, people will love it about 2 months a year. The rest of the year, it'll be lucky to score a Nielsen of 0.01.

"""

[mauchow]

Uhh, it'll survive...

[Butter]

It'll survive if they get enough cable systems to pay $3 a person to put it on. But nobody will watch it from about late March through early September. And I mean NOBODY.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

It'll survive if they get enough cable systems to pay $3 a person to put it on. But nobody will watch it from about late March through early September. And I mean NOBODY.

It might not be quite that bad, but it'll be close.

I sort of look at it like some of the regional sports networks (FSN-South & all their brethren). It's kind of funny but their ratings tend to be remarkably consistent albeit small, in the 0.1 to 0.4 range max. The 4pm Tuesday airings of some school's coaches show pulls about the same number as the 7p Wed airing or the Sun 10a airing or whatever FS network program they run in primetime. There's very little that's compelling but there's a relative handful of people watching something almost randomly at any given moment.

With the B10, you're going to get the football bump but the rest of the lineup is virtually assured of being in the fractional range the rest of the year. And I have to believe watching their struggle played a role in the SEC's decision to forego launching their own network & signing not only their new CBS deal but also the landmark 15-year deal with ESPN. Both sides even said as much at the press conference, SEC commish Mike Slive's comment was If we had done a channel which was the opportunity to get to try to do what we wanted to do, that would have been at least a 20 year to 25 year commitment.

I think that's pretty realistic, especially considering that ESPN-U is still just getting 22 million homes after almost four years. That will almost certainly improve with the SEC deal but it's still a relatively slow process. And that's what the B10 network faces, with the added issue of having to deal with all their own finances (instead of having that be the network partners problem).