This is would be much better with halfime mud wresling
Many folks who could care less about the fall ritual of watching Saturday college football games could care less about this. But the sports nuts will thrilled for at least a partial victory.
According to TV Week, Time Warner Cable has agreed to pick up the Big Ten Network in many Midwestern markets, including some in Ohio and Michigan, where college football is a religion and not a sport.
The Big Ten Network has been a thorn in the side for cable providers and loyal fans since it went on the air a year ago. The Big Ten balked at demands from cable providers that the network be added to higher-priced “sports tiers”, or in Comcast’s case, paying $1 per subscriber to add the network. The stalemate lasted though both the football and basketball season, forcing the true diehards to abandon cable for satellite dishes
In June, Comcast reached an agreement with the Big Ten Network to only pay 70 cents per subscriber for the channel in Big Ten-heavy markets and to offer the network in a higer-priced tiers elsewhere. Now, with the new TWC cable agreement, this percentage of grumbling should dramatically decrease.
Or it could shift to the NFL Network, which is still screwing subscribers by only showing live shows in cable markets that pay a premium. Or to the clusterf*** that is the NFL exclusive deal with Direct TV for full game coverage, which is full on greed. If the NFL package was offered on cable too, I know several folks who would be standing in line to shell out $200 to see their favorite team playing in a non-local venue (I felt the pain greatly when I lived in southern Illinois and was stuck watching the horrible Kansas City Chiefs.)
If we’re in the business of making money and currying support, the best thing the Top 10 Network, the NFL Network and any other sports conferences (speaking to the SEC here) who have toyed with the idea. Go work out a deal with Joost and let people watch their fave teams in peace from home intead of the smoky sport bars. People already watching through European streams, so insted of fighting the model, embrace it.
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