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Greed rules in Big Ten Network/Charter pact

An editorial  —  8/29/2008 1:59 pm

The Charter Communications/Big Ten Network agreement is bittersweet for many sports fans.

We'll be the first to admit that it's good news that Charter's cable subscribers in southern Wisconsin will finally be able to see Badger football and basketball games that are exclusively carried on the Big Ten Conference-controlled network.

Badger fans who have cable were for the second season in a row faced with either going to the expense and bother of switching to one of two satellite systems or finding a friend or neighbor -- or a local sports pub -- to see the game live.

Charter was the last major cable holdout in signing a pact with the Big Ten, balking at the conference network's insistence that the channel be part of its expanded basic package. The cable company wanted instead to place it on an all-sports tier, where sports subscribers would pay the Big Ten's relatively high fees rather than all subscribers, many of whom may not care for sports.

A compromise was finally forged. The Big Ten will be in the expanded basic package until the end of the men's basketball season next spring. After that Charter has the option of moving it to its digital TV service.

There is a downside, however. Once again, big-time college sports and the television-connected outfits that enter into deals with them wind up putting the squeeze on the little guy.

Some of the kingpins in today's athletic culture find it hard to believe that there may actually be people out there who can't afford expanded basic service, much less the digital package that is increasingly being pushed. But, of course, there are and they're big fans -- as big as the high rollers who have taken hold of supposedly amateur sports today.

Wisconsin and other big-time sports are often the only diversion for folks on fixed incomes or for many working people who have trouble scraping together enough cash to fill their gas tanks. They long ago were priced out of attending games in person and now an extra 25 or 30 bucks a month to watch on their TVs becomes impossible. They'll have to settle for the radio when the Big Ten Network determines it has exclusivity for the games.

Big-time college sports and the corporate entertainment media long ago figured out how to feed their insatiable thirst for more and more money. If folks get left along the way, so be it.

The deal between the Big Ten and Charter is just one more example of the greed that trumps everything these days.

An editorial  —  8/29/2008 1:59 pm