The Lafayette Journal & Courier features a pissing match between Comcast and the Big Ten Network over carrying the BTN on Lafayette area cable. The main story is here. Comcast’s spin his here. And, the Big Ten Network’s spin is here. And, a final bit of commentary from Mike Carmin here.
The jist is that Purdue games won’t be available on television unless it’s a big game picked up by networks or larger cable outlets; you get DirecTV; or you subscribe to the expanded sports package on Comcast. Comcast claims that the BTN is too expensive versus its overall appeal to carry on its basic passage. BTN claims that Comcast is dissembling about the true cost and, anyway, Comcast manages to carry its own sports networks on its basic offerings. Personally, I’m not prepared to believe either corporate spokesperson about the numbers they use. But, what I’d like to know is why the cable companies haven’t figured out a la carte pricing for their channels. It’d be really nice if I wanted to get the Big Ten Network — which I don’t, really — and could simply pay the price for that channel rather than being forced to buy a bunch of other channels in which I have no interest. The bundling is annoying.
My suspicion is that there is no great technological hurdle, but it’s in Comcast’s financial interest not to figure out how to do a la carte pricing. Kind of like it was, until recently, in the music publishing’s industry’s interest to figure out how to sell individual songs. The Internet and related technologies finally gave consumers what they wanted in this respect — most folks seem quite happy to forego piracy if they can download an individual song for a buck. I wonder if something similar will happen in television that will force the gatekeepers to be a little more responsive to consumers.
Sigh, I feel like an old fogey for saying this, but I miss the good ol’ days of my childhood, when IU games were always on Thursday evening & Saturdays, you could always watch them on WTTV-Channel 4, unless a national network picked up the game, & then on Sunday morning you could watch Bob Knight slouch in his chair & make fun of Chuck Marlowe on the Bob Knight show…good times!
Oh, and not to mention my dog running & hiding whenever she heard the IU fight song because she knew my dad would start yelling at the TV shortly afterwards, usually something like “c’mon, Kitchel! Jeez!”
Doug: just to clarify, it is not currently possible to watch the Big Ten Network on Comcast’s expanded sports package, and likely will not be possible in the foreseeable future. The BTN officials have made clear that price is negotiable, but carriage on one of the basic tiers within the 8-state Big Ten region is not negotiable. Comcast claims also claims that the latter is non-negotiable, and they want it on a sports tier nationwide. Because of that impasse, the Big Ten is not offering the BTN to Comcast in any fashion. Fox and the Big Ten have a 20 year deal regarding the BTN, so it’s unlikely that Comcast will have the BTN at all during the 2007-08 school year unless Comcast gives in on the basic issue.
I’m not sure who the local phone service provider is in Lafayette, but in parts of Indianapolis and in several other places in Indiana, there is a new phone-based product called AT&T U-Verse that also provides the BTN.
Thanks for the clarification, John. For those of you who may not know, John operates The Hoosier Report, an excellent source of information about Indiana University sports. I see that I did not do my homework and John has already been covering this.
I would love to not have to receive a half-dozen religious channels on my dish package.
DirecTV has lovely dual-tuner receivers with easy-to-use TiVo software that allow you to watch one program while another is recorded in the background. To put it in non-sports perspective, you can record and/or watch both CSI and Grey’s Anatomy (which air head-to-head) at the same time.
They’ve got the Seal of Approval from my wife – she loves her TiVo, and she doesn’t suffer bad tech kindly.
(Just make sure you ask DirecTV for the TiVo boxes. Don’t let them give you the DirecTV DVR boxes – they’re crap.)
joe: those dual-tuner directivos are awesome. i moved from a directv house to a comcast one, and moving to the comcast dvr was a real step backward. (but on reflection, the gf and i agreed that we’d rather use dual-tuner comcast dvrs than a single-tuner tivo. the tivo interface is definitely better, but dual tuners are a must-have!)
then again, i don’t watch sports, and don’t understand why the big ten even needs its own channel.
I hope they don’t. The pricing is per subscriber, and Comcast isn’t going to do it for free. Every new network (BTN, ESPNU, VS, Discovery Times Channel, etc) prices per sub. I shouldn’t have to pay more for my cable bill so people can watch their sports. The sports pack idea is the best, but the Big Ten has already shown that they are being greedy just by making the BTN. Making people put it in the basic package (more $$ for BTN) makes people that could give a crap about sports pay for sports.
As to T’s point, I agree, however that is the opposite of BTN. They are considered “public interest” channels, and Comcast (and Dish and DirecTV) are required to carry them, but don’t have to pay for them.
Talk to the FCC about removing those.
stAllio!: I figured by now Comcast users would have their boxes updated with the TiVo software they’re getting. So your days of dealing with the crummy Comcast software should be numbered ….
One of the reasons why I don’t subscribe to cable or any other provider is because of the lack of a la carte pricing. Why should I pay for channels I have no interest in watching? It’s like I walk into a grocery to buy gum, but have to buy toothbrushes, mouthwash and mints to get the gum. Perhaps one day soon, I’ll be able to purchase live programming from an Internet site.
I have no tears to shed for the cable companies. They’re upset because they can’t make this a premium channel and make it a subscription service and charge even more for it. Sure not everyone in the midwest is a Big Ten university fan, but I bet theres a great percentage that is and the cable companies stand to make more money by offering it their way. Think about it… If they can make it a subscription service.. It’s gonna be a “DEAL” to get it for an extra $15 a month if we’re lucky. So multiply $13.90 times the millions of households and thats their profit margin. Since the BigTen network is just brocrasting over exsisting equipment they have no work to do other than program which house gets which channels.
If they are forced to offer on basic subsciptions, they’re going to raise their rates. (which is bound to happen anyway because of global warming, a new president, or some other crap excuse) And when they raise those basic subscriptions.. they won’t be able to raise it $15 a month because people will leave over that steep of a hike. so they’ll only be able to raise it $10 at the most and thats lost money.
I too am disappointed that the Big Ten are taking a good thing and changing it, but I’ll be able to see more basketball, hockey, and other sports that arn’t big match-ups and arn’t playoff implicators, but are of my favorite team. I’ve had to play along everytime Comcast has decided to hike my rate on a short notice.. How about they throw me a bone for once
I am very dissapointed in the whole Big Ten Network, comcast fued. In my view, this is quite unfair to the MANY Big Ten fans throughout the midwest. I myself am a Michigan State Student and a big supporter of our athletics and I can’t seem to wrap my head around this whole idea that these companies cant find a happy medium in supplying the Big Ten’s loyal fans the games on a weekly basis. Into the third week of the season, ABC will have the primary selection on which Big Ten game it will show, leaving the second choice to the BTN. 11/3 is the weekend of the Michigan State/Michigan game… the same weekend as the Ohio State/Wisconsin game, which would be the obvious first choice for ABC. This means that I wont even be able to watch the biggest rivalry game of the year unless I go out and buy a dish or drive to a bar that carries the game. Fans used to be able to watch their home teams on local stations such as ESPN+. Now lower tier Big Ten schools and their fans are left on the outise if their cable provider, such as comcast, wont provide their games. Instead, I can sit at home and watch a station that I dont even like but yet have to pay for. I dont see how comcast can say a certian station can be aired to the general population but this one cant? Myself, along with the other Big Ten fans, would most likely be willing to pay a low monthly fee to comast in order to provide our games as a subscription…