Looks like Comcast cable subscribers are not going to get the new Big Ten network this season. It's unfortunate that, living in Big Ten country, we don't read the real truth about Jim Delany, the negotiations for the BTN and the impasse with Comcast. All we get are the Big Ten Network talking points. The Big Ten regional media doesn't take Delany to task for this monumental failure in negotiations. Why is it that zero media scribes or broadcast interviewers have put him on the spot and asked him the most important question: How much he is seeking from Comcast, per subscriber, for the BTN? The fact we won't get the BTN on Comcast comes down to one simple fact: it's too damn expensive because the Big Ten is trying to gouge Comcast and TV subscribers and Comcast doesn't think they will sell enough packages or be able to raise rates enough to attract a suitable number of viewers. They want to be certain of a minimum number of subscribers and $$ revenue. Their financial models obviously tell them they won't reach those targets. If they did, they would have had a deal by now . Yet, the media won't address that at all. Curious that the media is so passive about this huge Big Ten screwup. I want the games, but do I want them for an additional $10/month? $15/month? I don't know the answer because nobody in the media will ask Delany the question. Comcast surely knows where the breakeven price point is for their new channels. And it's obvious that their models tell them they won't achieve the desired return at the current prices the BTN is trying to charge.
It will be interesting to see how the BTN's bargaining position erodes when they have to pay production expenses to televise all the games they promised to Direct TV, but don't have the cable subscriber base to absorb those costs. It will also be interesting to see how the Big Ten presidents react to Delany when they realize he went forward with this network without all the subscription deals already set and in place and all the i's dotted on all the contracts with cable and satellite subscribers nationwide. If any businessman in a "real" business put such a deal together prematurely without all the distribution channels established, as Delany as done, he'd be out of a job quicker than you can say "missed financial expectations".
Subject: Big Ten Network 
Sat Aug 25, 2007 4:46 am