THE BIG TEN NETWORK: YOU, SIR, ARE PEEING ON MY LEG

As long as the games show up on DirecTV, I could care less how they get handed out. (I see the auto-renewal is coming up in the near future, so it’s time to turn some screws on the satellite flingers.

And yes, Jim Delany is a douche. Wayne Duke was the last Big Ten commish who had class.

As long as the games show up on DirecTV, I could care less how they get handed out. (I see the auto-renewal is coming up in the near future, so it’s time to turn some screws on the satellite flingers.)

And yes, Jim Delany is a douche. Wayne Duke was the last Big Ten commish who had class.

I should know better than to post this early in the morning, or care about whether my parentheses close properly.

Unless it’s an outrageous concidence, setting your price ($1.10) by using a gimmick such as number of teams in your conference sounds like just bad business practice.

ummm…. headcheese now that’s good eatin’.

This won’t hapen in the Pac-10 as long as Tom Hansen is commish. He doesn’t have the foresight or the ingenuity for something of this size. Furthermore, who would watch the Pac-10 network? Wouldn’t it be easier for the mythical “east coast bias” to occur if there was a single network to ignore, especially since the wwl only shows highlights of games carried on their affiliate networks?

A bad business practice like a fox!

Honestly, this seems like a genuinely poor idea from the commissioner. Considering (and this is a hugely optimistic estimation) that there will be six hours of watchable football a week, for 13 weeks, worth watching, that’s 78 hours of watchable programming. Let’s also go six hours of watchable basketball a week for, oh, 17 weeks (again, wildly optimistic). There’s 102 hours. All told, 180 hours, maximum. That’s just over a hair over 2% of the time the network will be on.

Worse, none of those 180 hours come between late March and early September, but we’ll still be paying for it anyway. The awkward post-game shows where Ahmad Rashad cries into his coffee and wonders where his career went? Paying for those too. The press conferences where Joe Tiller unleashes seismic farts that rattle the light fixtures? Well, that’s worth paying for too. Fine, 181 good hours of TV.

Delany is rightly interpreting his job as doing as much as possible for his conference. The means by which he goes about that task, however, are not correct, and they may have serious unintended financial consequences for the conference.

It may be a regional bias, but of the BCS conferences, the Big 10 seems the most capable of producing matchups that are unwatchable, and if the network is getting Hoosier/Illini variety cuts, rather than the UM/OSU tenderloins, who the hell is gonna watch?

Weiberg left the Big 12 in something of a over revenue sharing, where he believes in the Big 11’s model of total revenue sharing. The Big 12’s shares television revenue more like MLB, so there’s 4 teams with big budgets and tv revenues, and 8 have-nots. Of course, it takes a 9-team vote to change by-laws another legacy of the Texas voting bloc of the Big 12.

I really wonder how long until the Big 12 blows itself apart and the old SWC reforms.

Do we really need this? I’m a Florida fan. I’m interested in what’s happening in the rest of the SEC, but I really don’t need a network to show me that Miss. State vs. Vanderbilt matchup that got squeezed out of the network schedule. What makes the Big Televen so compelling that we absolutely must have every game broadcast?

And doesn’t this take the fun out of having the gf take me to a bar with the local Penn State Alumni group to watch the PSU-Northwestern game? That’s the only thing that makes that thing watchable, anyway…

This is going to turn into a fiasco, i can see it already. It is rumored that the network will only be available to the area the Big Ten serves (um, sorry fans in other states). Also, not all games will be on, and tOSU was a complete mess when the Indiana-osu game wasn’t on last year, I can’t imagine if their are multiple games blocked out during the season. Just another ass raping the fans take, dispite shelling out thousands$$ a year to support the teams, the Big Teneleven has gone totally corporate. They should make the Network donate all proceeds back to the universities to lower some fucking prices of some shit.

The ACC would be a better choice for a sports network because they have the football games, the basketball games, the great baseball teams, and also good lacrosse teams, which is a tertiary revenue sport that would be worth mixing in. I would be willing to watch some golf on occaison, even. A couple rivalry Volleyball or Softball matches thrown in for good measure and you’re not doing too shabby.

Then, you get yourself the “ACC News” tv show, and the thing’s looking like a champ. Then you can have some show like “ledgends of the ACC” a history channel style show that does a 30 min. bio of some ACC person from whence back when, which could actually be fairly cool.

Taking from the food network, you could easily shoehorn together some sorta-decent tailgating show. That would tape their show at a different game every week, or something gimmicky.

I’m an idea man I feed off enthusiasm.

If not for the picture clarity of High Definition television revealing Tom Hammond to be a muppet-robot, he would likely be well on his way to world domination.

Oh, I forgot to mention that “The Erin Andrews Hour” would be another hit show. This would involve showing clips of the interviews given by “E.A.” that always make you cringe with pain when people don’t get wtf she’s talking about or trying to ask…which is practicalyl every time she opens her mouth. But I still love her.

I brought this up in a thread last week, but I was very late, so I don’ t think anyone noticed…

In 5 years, when every cell phone (or the Oakley Bluetooth MP3Player/Headset/Video goggles you’re stylishly sporting) has a 10MP, 45 frame/sec, 1080p HD video camera in it, why will we need ESPN (or now the Big 10/SEC/BIG 12/PAC 10 Networks). When you can log into any one of the thousands of VideoBlogs broadcasting from any sporting event in the nation and get pretty much any angle you want, why would you pay to watch Purdue/Indiana in Big Televenvision?

While it is easy to make fun of Delany, let’s all agree about this. The people on this blog have an insatiable need for college football.

Right now, I don’t miss a single Michigan game, since they are all on ABC, ESPN (1, 2, or regional). But since there now exists the possibility that an occasional Michigan-Indiana or Michigan-Purdue game might be exclusively on the Big Ten Network, I must have it.

I’ll add the $1.10 a month to the amount I spend on season tickets, the Wolverine magazine, UM apparel, my Rival’s premium account, etc.

One thing that the internet has taught me, I am not alone.

#15:
Will those feeds include network-quality graphics? Network-quality production? Brent Musberger? Unless zoom technology advances a couple generations, too, I don’t think fancams will become the ESPN of the future.

Also, networks pay for rights. Your ticket stub says you will not transmit images or information about the game without consent. No one ever thought Napster was going to get shut down, either.

1. -

I can paraphrase your post thusly [and I say this with all due respect]:

“I am assuming the position”

#17… maybe 5 years is optimistic on zoom technology… but I can get the same graphics/stats from Gametracker in one window while I have 17 other windows open with various angles I can pull up, rewind and replay all I want.

As for rights, at some point the technology will overwhelm any way to control it. The guy from Louisville last week is just the tip of the iceburg. Whether it’s 5 years, or 10 or 15, there will come a point where video bloggers do for live events what political bloggers are doing for punditry.

What I’m asking is, when that happens, does anyone here feel like they’ll want to pay just to listen to Mark May and Lee Corso tell us how they feel about the games we just watched online?

#15/19 -

Another thing to consider—if you’re watching the feed off of a camera attached to my head, you may miss some of the game, but you’re going to get some great atmospheric shots involving the girl sitting 2 rows in front of me.

CKG, you just beat me to that thought… I just started thinking about what I pay attention to between plays when I’m at the game… and that could be a whole network unto itself.

Wow, like sheep to the slaughter are these Integer suckheads drawn. Moth to bug zapper may be a better reference?

By the way I love the math on this whole thing. when properly extrapolated:

10 Large Land Grant Universities + one red-headed stepchild = $1.10/mo on top of whatever it costs to get digital cable in Fly-over country

1 small catholic school right in the middle of all of them = free, every week. Well ,wexcept for that one time every two years we play on ESPN. Then you just go to the bar and get saucy.

#15/19:
Also, the die-hard fan may enjoy having 20 fancams up on their display and playing switchboard operator, but what about the fans watching games in bars? What about the fan who’s watching with other people, and has a need to be social? What about people who don’t have such technical proficiency? It’s an exciting complement to future broadcasts, but I don’t think networks have a lot to worry about.

Holy crap, did you just call Delany a dickface??

So I was thinking it might be a good time to see the dentist, if you haven’t in awhile…Get some X-rays…At least that way your remains might be identified…Good luck!…(runs

Oh boy! My studies!

All I want to know is, will this network prevent me from hearing the dulcet tones of Pam Ryan every Saturday? That lady’s got the body of a bingo player and the face of the Schmoo. She also sounds like she’s always battling a nasty yeast infection.

This entire Big Ten Network ordeal is so silly that I refuse to learn anything about it. Seriously, I’m over it already. It probably won’t affect me too much as a Penn State fan since we generally have enough alumni and general popularity to weasel our way onto ESPN2 at the worst (Pam Ward, call me!).

I would prefer that Delany crams his head up his ass and starts chewing.

Grouchy Monday Morning QB:

BIG 10? Ridiculous. It is really Big 3 (Mich, tOSU & Penn St.) + Mid-Size 2 or 3 + MIDGET 5 or so.

BIG 10? Why not call it “Great 10”, like Britain named itself.

BIG 10? Re-change that awful name to something more accurate and descriptive -> Mid-West 10+Hicksville 1 (Penn State)

1. :
   Remember when Penn State beat Iowa? No, seriously, do you? I don’t. Penn St is not one of the big 3 of anything unless you’re talking about most inaccurately names cities.

They really should just name it Big Televen and get it over with.

Better yet, Penn State should leave. I’d be so down with that.

You guys are being way too critical. Come on think about it. The worst qualities of every regional sports stations (Fox Sports, YES), plus a million of those touchy “behind the athlete” stories that we love during the Olympics, plus coverage of indoor track events, plus a game or two a week on taped-delay not covered by anyone else, and throw in 12-hours a day of informercials, and shazzam we have (insert conference name) TV! Open your minds, fools!

SKLM,

I have to agree, State Penn is NOT one of the elite Big 1? members. Losing to Minnesota (multiple times) would help support that point.

I wonder if Tom Hammond’s 5-head gets in the way when he’s eating Charlie Weiss’s 3-hole out

Reason #531 games are better in person:

Hot Co-ed 1: “We don’t have any seats near here.”

Hot Co-ed 2: “But….If we play with each others’ boobs for a while, will you let us sqeeze into your row?”

Westerdawg’s Row (In unison): “YES!”

That’s not really related to this thread. I just wanted to mention it.

SKLM, you’re right. We really should rename it the First Conference, and be done with it.

Wooderson, not all of the Big 10’s public (ok, PSU is semi-public) members are land grant schools. Indiana, Iowa, Michigan are not. As far as the red-headed stepchild, NU is closer to being the cousin everyone sucks up to because he has a cool place to crash, but secretly resents because of his trust fund.

“I’ll add the $1.10 a month to the amount I spend on season tickets, the Wolverine magazine, UM apparel, my Rival’s premium account, etc.”

$1.10 is what Big Ten Network wants to charge Comcast per subscriber. The actual consumer cost will probably be at least twice that (or did you think Comcast was going provide the new channel at cost?)

I have less of an issue with this when it’s packaged on the premium sports tier, where those who want it can pay for it.

The problem, even in an alleged Big Ten “home market” like Chicago (where there are nevertheless millions of us who aren’t Big Ten fans and could not care less about that overrated league), comes when the BTN is trying to get their fledgling channel on the basic tier. At those prices, such a move would cause an increase in already sky-high cable rates, essentially forcing non-Big Ten fans to subsidize Big Can’t Count fans’ viewing habits.

And if recent history is any indication, Comcast’s basic tier is full, so not only would I have to pay an extra three bucks per month so that John Q. Hawkeye down the street can watch his team’s riveting matchup against the league’s last-place team, but I’d also be losing a channel I currently receive to do so. And not some crappy, fly-by-night home shopping channel, either. The Travel Channel and ESPN Classic have both been shuffled off to the premium tier in recent years to make room for new arrivals.

Thus, I appreciate Comcast CEO’s quote along the lines of “screw that noise” in the linked NYT piece.

1. - I think you meant Pam Ward, not Ryan.

And, yes, she is not pleasant to look at.

#37:
That is the most egregious mistake I’ve ever made in my life.

Since I am unlikely to spend one red cent on subscribing to “the big 10 network” this is going to negatively inpact my big ten football nap on the couch.
(The best Saturday naps ever, and you know what I mean).

Thankfully, there is still the Altel Cup Series in Nascar.

Okay, so this might sound like a dumb question, but will the BTN be in the BIG TEN DORM ROOMS? Here at Michigan, we get comcast, so, ummm, WTF?

Agree with “Run up the Score”.

 Why DID PSU join the Big Ten?

Arguably, PSU was probably one of the only schools that could have remained independent in football and pulled a Notre Dame by joining the Big East in other sports.

If anything the Big East would have been more compelling given their long time rivalries with Pitt and WVU.

International viewers like me are going to be left out. I have been able to catch games on espn gameplan last couple of seasons. I will be having no options this year.
Given how international the big ten schools have become, it is sad that they have no internet strategy in place to accommodate their international viewers.
I am done contributing to my schools(illinois) sports funds. I hope they make enough $$ out of this network.