Reporter: BTN vs. cable is like Penguin vs. Joker
Mike Woods of Wisconsin’s Appleton Post-Crescent had an interesting analogy about the Big Ten Network’s very public battle with cable companies. It isn’t often that we blog about comic books, but he likened it to having to choose between two villians, The Joker vs. The Penguin.
There are three groups of fans on our forums. One us siding with cable companies, one is siding with the Big Ten Network, and one could care less who wins as long as they get to watch Michigan State play each week. Unfortunately it’s starting to look like nobody is going to win (except DirecTV subscribers) as the August 30th launch date for the network quickly approaches.
This is like trying to decide to root for either The Penguin or The Joker — they’re both crooks. It’s all about how much money they can squeeze out of the consumer, the hostage in this Dash for Cash, whose concerns are of no concern to either party.
The Big Ten wants its network on the expanded basic cable — in almost all cases here, that means Time Warner — and not on a digital sports tier that costs extra. That would give the Big Ten more money from subscribers and more exposure to advertisers, thus allowing the BTN to charge them more.
The cable folks say it’s in their best interests to pass along the additional costs of the BTN only to those customers who think Northwestern at Indiana is must-see TV. They see it as a niche network, one that will not bring marquee matchups and whose supplementary programming is suspect.
In case you’re wondering about which conference games you’ll be missing, here is a list of Big Ten games that will be shown during the first three weekends of the season. These games will ONLY be shown on the Big Ten Network.
BIG TEN NETWORK FOOTBALL SCHEDULE: WEEKS 1-3
Saturday, September 1
Appalachian State at Michigan, Noon EDT (HD)
Youngstown State at Ohio State, Noon EDT (HD)
Florida International at Penn State, Noon EDT (HD)
Northeastern at Northwestern, Noon EDT
Bowling Green at Minnesota, 8 p.m. EDT (HD)
Indiana State at Indiana, 8 p.m. EDT (HD)Saturday, September 8
Akron at Ohio State, Noon EDT (HD)
Nevada at Northwestern, Noon EDT (HD)
Bowling Green at Michigan State, Noon EDT (HD)
Miami (Ohio) at Minnesota, Noon EDT
Eastern Illinois at Purdue, Noon EDT
Western Illinois at Illinois, 7 p.m. EDT (HD)
Syracuse at Iowa, 8 p.m. EDT (HD)Saturday, September 15
The Citadel at Wisconsin, Noon EDT (HD)
Buffalo at Penn State, Noon EDT (HD)
Akron at Indiana, Noon EDT (HD)
Duke at Northwestern, 8 p.m. EDT (HD)