Big Ten games not picked up by Big Cable providers
Are you ready for some Football? This weekend is the start of college football and millions of viewers will tune into as many games as they can get their hands on. The excitement builds as all the top conferences get ready to have their biggest games aired for all sports fans to see, well all but the Big Ten. The Big Ten has created its own football network that will air 400 live events this year, but the only problem is that they can’t sign a deal with the biggest cable providers in the region. Comcast and Time Warner are the cable giants for the Big Ten region and they refuse to sign the network to be included in their basic cable plan. This is going to be tough because the Big Ten will have games that include Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and Notre Dame. I am sure that there are many people that want to get on some of that action, but they cannot with their TV.
There have been quite a few smaller cable providers that picked up the Big Ten Network, but for the most part, Comcast and Time Warner are the ones that run the show. Now we all know that it can be very hard to persuade cable companies to do something because they have tremendous bargaining power. The two are still in negotiations, but as it stands for this weekends games, Time Warner and Comcast subscribers will have to listen to the games via radio or go to a local bar to watch the games.
