| OSU vs. Penguins TV Coverage in Jeopardy |
| Sunday, June 24 2007 |
| Courtesy of: The Plain Dealer |
| Big Ten cable talks going down to wire Friday, June 22, 2007 by Doug Lesmerises Plain Dealer Reporter Will cable subscribers in Northeast Ohio be able to watch the first game of Ohio State's football season on Sept. 1? Maybe. But it might take Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel indirectly serving as a DirecTV shill and the Big Ten mobilizing millions of conference alumni as complaining customers to make it happen. Negotiating new television channels onto existing TV platforms typically is complicated, acrimonious and down-to-the-wire. The Big Ten Network, set to launch in August, and cable companies are haggling about price, with the network asking for $1.10 per Midwest subscriber, about one-third the cost of ESPN, according to Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany. But they're also squabbling about the network's demand to exist on basic cable, not on package that costs customers more money. Considering that Time Warner, serving 985,000 homes in Northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania, has subscribers in 33 states, many of whom care little about the Big Ten, that's not a simple discussion. An aggravated Delany on Thursday called for an apology from a Comcast cable executive who called the network's events "second- and third-choice games" in a New York Times story this week, vexed that any conference games would be considered second-choice. Delany readily acknowledged in a conference call with reporters that signing the final contracts could come down to the final minutes, with the Buckeyes' game against Youngstown State on Sept. 1 one of the first marquee events on the schedule. That's where Delany said the 4 million Big Ten alumni and millions of other Big Ten fans in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois come in. "I think people should be extremely curious," Delany said. "I think they should call [their cable companies] and ask. And if they want to demand it, that's fine." Those die-hard Buckeyes fans - and Wolverines, Nittany Lions, Spartans and Hawkeyes fans - are the Big Ten's not-so-secret weapon. "These discussions do get ugly at times," said Lee H. Berke, the CEO of LHB Inc., a sports and media consulting firm. "But the reality is that sports content has a number of avid fans. If they were coming out with a fourth version of the weather channel, there may not be that many complaints. But if you tell Ohio State fans their team won't be on, that's part of their leverage. That demonstrates the value of the network." Delany said the Big Ten Network has about 40 agreements worked out with smaller cable companies in the Midwest, though few have been announced yet. But the big players are Comcast, with 5.6 million subscribers in the eight Big Ten states, and Time Warner. Heidi Mock, a Time Warner spokesperson, said Thursday that while the company and the Big Ten are in talks, Time Warner sees the Big Ten Network fitting in the separate sports package that includes the Speed Channel, NBA TV, the Outdoor Channel and several Fox college sports channels. Delany said that stance is a deal-breaker and considers the extra cost a tax on the Big Ten alumni who have been loyal basic cable subscribers. Roughly 70 days away from the network's launch, Delany isn't too worried. But he said by the time the Big Ten meetings are held on July 31 and Aug. 1, if the cable deals aren't progressing, he's ready for Tressel, Penn State's Joe Paterno and the rest of the conference coaches to advise fans to switch to DirecTV, the satellite system with 16 million subscribers that will carry the network. So far, it's a lot of posturing, with the fans as the wild card. There was a miniuproar last year when Ohio State's game with Indiana was shown on ESPNU, which Time Warner, among other cable companies, did not offer. Time Warner ended up showing the game on tape delay. Ironically, since then Time Warner has added ESPNU to its basic cable lineup. The Big Ten Network's content sounds interesting. In what he declared a major decision, Delany announced that within three years, the number of women's events on the network will equal the number of men's events. He didn't rule out the Michigan-Ohio State game someday making its way to the network. There are original show ideas percolating (How about a dorm-room version of "MTV Cribs"?) and suggestions have been made to show out-of-conference events like minor-league or youth sports. But first people have to be able to get the Big Ten Network. And that fight is still very much on. To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: dlesmerises@plaind.com, 216-999-4479 |