Big Ten Network Finally Gets a Deal Done

The BTN finally reached a deal with Comcast, one of the largest cable providers in the BTN's marketing region.

Looks like a lot of dealing was done.

• The BTN will be on expanded basic on Comcast for one year, then Comcast has the option to move it to a premium sports tier
• The price was negotiated from $1.10 per viewer to $.70
• Outside of the states that don't have Big Ten schools, Comcast has the option to not offer the BTN at all, or put it on a premium sports tier

Lots of compromise on the part of the BTN.

Of course none of this means that I can watch it yet, since no deal has been struck with Charter as of this writing. I think that after this deal that Charter will get one done. They better, or Badger fans up here will go nuts come football season.

Like I said all along, the BTN needed to soften its demands to be a little more realistic. I am sure that there were more things that were dealt to get this done. Usually when two behemoth companies (the ones that own Fox/BTN and Comcast) do deals they are not one offs, but a combination of you do "this" for me over here and we will do "this" for you over there.

The end game through this whole debacle has been super bad PR for the Big Ten and a further weakening of the brand name. In football we have turned into a second class conference, behind the Pac 10, Big 12 and, of course the behemoth SEC.

Hopefully the BTN can get all of the deals done that they need to before the football season starts and I can watch the Illini a few extra times this fall.