Big Ten Network inks deal with Verizon, negotiating again with Mediacom

Jeff Richgels  —  8/23/2008 5:45 pm

The Big Ten Network announced Wednesday that it has signed a deal with Verizon to be carried on its FiOS service, a cable-like TV service that is delivered to homes over fiber optic lines.

Verizon provides phone and Internet services to several Madison area communities, including Sun Prairie and Oregon, but those local markets are not included in Verizon's FiOS rollout plans that have been released through 2010.

Meanwhile, Mediacom, which serves about 400,000 households in Iowa, is in "active discussions" again with BTN, Mediacom spokeswoman Phyllis Peters told the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Like Charter Communications, the dominant cable provider in the Madison area, Mediacom has been unable to reach a carriage deal with BTN. However, BTN's recent deal with Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, has raised hopes for deals with other major cable firms such as Charter and Mediacom.

The sticking points in the negotiations have been price and which level of service BTN will be carried on.

Peters told the paper that while such agreements are multifaceted, making them "less straightforward than a typical person might consider .... there's time to work through the various elements," before Big Ten teams start the college football season Aug. 30.

The Big Ten Conference owns 51 percent of the network, and Fox owns 49 percent.

Verizon, which has become the nation's ninth-largest video distributor with more than 1.2 million customers in less than three years, already has placed BTN on its most widely available level of service in the Fort Wayne, Ind., area and will launch it region by region during the next few months in all additional areas where FiOS TV is available.

FiOS also is available in parts of Pennsylvania, as well as key states like New York, California, Texas and Florida with many Big Ten alumni.

"Verizon has placed a high priority on providing the best in both sports and high-definition content to our FiOS TV subscribers," Terry Denson, vice president-FiOS TV content and programming, said in a statement.

BTN also has carriage deals with satellite providers DirecTV and DISH Network, as well as numerous smaller cable companies, including MHTC (formerly Mount Horeb Telephone Co.), which serves the areas of Mount Horeb, Blue Mounds and Dodgeville.

BTN is likely to carry about the same number of UW football games this season as last season, as the process for deciding which networks cover which games has not changed.

Last season, five UW football games were telecast by BTN: nonconference games against Citadel and Northern Illinois and conference games against Ohio State, Indiana and Minnesota.

It already was announced earlier this month that BTN will broadcast the first two UW football games this season -- 11 a.m. games at Camp Randall Stadium against Akron on Aug. 30 and Marshall on Sept. 6.

BTN gets about half of all Big Ten football games, including about 40 percent of conference matchups. It has a guarantee of one conference game for each Big Ten team, which led to the Badgers' huge game against Ohio State last season being on BTN.

Once the conference season starts, ABC will get the first pick each week, ESPN will get the second and third picks 75 percent of the time, BTN the second and third picks 25 percent of the time, and BTN the remaining games each week.

Jeff Richgels  —  8/23/2008 5:45 pm