Well I finally look through the TV today and notice I now have the BTN sitting right below ESPN2 on my Cable. I don't know if that means anything for you Mediacom subscribers, but I can now get my fill of NW womens Lacrosse. :smile:
Comcast Has Big 11 Network?
- Thread starter JHudd
- Start date
Yep, they struck up a deal a few weeks back. Right now, it is in their main cable package, like the BTN wanted. But after this year, Comcast can do what they want with it. My guess is that they will put it in their sports package. They never said how much Comcast ended up paying for the contract, but I'm willing to guess it is a far cry from what the BTN wanted initially.
This was done a think over a month ago... People thought it would indicate Mediacom making a deal and they're still far away... I don't want to pay extra for the Big 11, but selfishly, I kind of want to watch the ISU-Iowa game at my apartment as opposed to a sports bar....
I still dont know how the network makes money. I watched the network the other week and it was all university adds. Given this was 1pm on a sunday in August but how do they expect to make money.
I think they expect to make money by trying to charge cable companies more than they pay for ESPN..........
On a serious note, I think it'd be easier for them to make money if Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin didn't get so much abc coverage. Then those fans would be watching Big 11 Network all the time.
So lets say the BTN gets on Mediacom's Sports tier where it belongs. Will they just broadcast 1 channel? Because Satelite has a bunch of alternate channels right? Plus one channel is in HD? I just don't see Cable companies broadcasting 4 channels of crap including one HD Channel, but who knows.
The model is to make money from subscriber fees. These are in the ballpark of 3-5 dollars a month per subscriber. And it's essential for their model that they get it on the basic tier so that they can get that revenue from every subscriber to a cable system all year round. Putting it on a premium tier - or worse yet as a separate subscription - means that there will be many many customers that don't subscribe, or subscribe only during football and basketball season. They make money secondary to that by selling commercial ads. Some of that revenue is shared with the cable systems.
There's no way MC will carry more than one BTN on the analog cable network. They might carry the alternates on the digital tier, and maybe in HD, but there's no way they will give up 3 or 4 channels of analog bandwidth for 3 or 4 alternate channels.
I haven't seen any financial statements concerning the Big Ten network, but I believe that Fox News Corp owns 49% with the conference owning the remaining 51%. It is also a 20 year partnership agreement with the Big Ten, which leads me to believe that this network has deep enough pockets to be around for a long time. The first year payout to Big Ten teams was in the neighborhood of 6 million dollars...with projected annual payouts of 9 million.
