Midco Dropping BTN
- Thread starter Gorm
- Start date
Now the question is: will Midco partner with Cyclones.TV to broadcast the ISU home opener vs SDSU?
I looked back at the previous thread about Comcast dropping Big10 network out of market and there was a tweet that said cable companies charge subscribers .45 per month for the Big 10 network. Assuming that this impacts 50,000* residents in South Dakota (pop of Sioux Falls alone is estimated at +180,000) that’s a loss of $22,500/mo or $270K/yr. That’s not much to really bat an eye at when Big10 schools are making $30mil a year, but on the other hand that’s just (potentially) one small sample of markets that the Big10 network is losing - for the moment.
*Midco boasts a modest subscriber count of “over 380,000” on their website, and covers Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas and the Dakotas.
*Midco boasts a modest subscriber count of “over 380,000” on their website, and covers Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas and the Dakotas.
They are run VERY differently though. I know people complain vehemently about Comcast but Midco has been very good. Regular speed upgrades, reasonably priced($50 for 75/7), no data caps, and have been quick to send out techs when I've had an issue. 4 years ago or so I had some occasional issues with reliability but that has since been fixed.
My two complaints with them consist of:
1. Their default wireless modems are hot garbage. You're way better off just getting a wired modem and buying a decent router.
2. I think they route their traffic slightly weird. I deal with slightly higher pings in online gaming than I feel I should.
This is just the start of tectonic changes on how viewers and providers deal with sports networks. As was stated in the Comcast thread, the days where ESPN could threaten a cable company are numbered. Just how this impacts conference TV rights payouts will be seen during the next conference bargaining session.
We may have seen the peak network contract.
We may have seen the peak network contract.
You've got that way wrong. Sioux Falls is dirty with hawkroaches and cornf*ckers. And it's got such a hard on for MPLS there's a lot of Minnesota fans too.
Whether or not all the t-shirt fans care about BTN is another story though, I guess...
BTN should be on a sports tier, period. Thankfully, their model of fleecing every single cable subscriber is coming to an end. Channels like that should be paid for by the people that actually want to watch them, not everyone.
