Greed, greed, and more greed!!!

This post concerns those who dearly love college football as I do. For those who do not know, the Big Ten is beginning a cable channel all their own. What is wrong with that you say? What is wrong is that the Big Ten channel will have exclusive rights to the Big Ten games. No longer will your games be on free local TV, rather, it now seems as though the trend for college football will be pay per view. How can they do that you say? The commissioner of the Big Ten, Jim Delany, is the one starting up the Big Ten channel. Therefore, ALL of the teams within the Big Ten must comply or else leave the Big Ten. Here is an article I found concerning the issue.

"The man who Sports Illustrated has called the most powerfull person in college athletics has been on what has to be a humbling tour of fan events and editorial-board meetings in the Midwest, extolling the virtues of his new cable TV station. The Big Ten Network will launch August 30, two days before the college football season kicks off. It holds exclusive rights to show Ohio State's opener against Youngstown State, as well as the season openers for five other Big Ten teams that day. The Buckeyes' week 2 matchup against Akron is one of seven Sept. 8 Big Ten games that will be seen only on BTN. There could be a couple more added to the BTN slate as the season progresses. Delany's problem is that most cable companies in Big Ten TV markets--including Time Warner, Insight and WOW, the only three available in Columbus--have flatly refused to carry the network on the Big Ten's terms. The network wants cable companies in the Big Ten's region of the country to pay $1.10 per subscriber, though BTN President Mark Silverman said that number is negotiable. What is not negotiable is BTN's demand to be part of the widely purchased expanded basic programming package--rather than an add-on sports tier for which cable customers would have to pay extra. So, unless a deal gets done quickly, an event that would draw similar ratings in Columbus to the Super Bowl will be unavailable to hundreds of thousands of Buckeye fans. "It's oh-oh time," Delany said Thursday. His hope is that viewers will blame the cable companies for the situation and pressure them to cave. But the fact is that if he had not created the BTN--and laid a claim for those games for the network--Central Ohio cable viewers would get to see the Younstown State and Akron games on another channel, just as they were able to watch last year's games against Cincinnati and Bowling Green. The Big Ten in general and Delany specifically have been hammered by outlets from the Chicago Sun-Times to The New York Times, which characterize the concept of the BTN as nothing but a money grab. Meanwhile, the Southeastern Conference, Big 12, ACC, and Pac-10 all are keeping close watch on teh results. Each is likely to model a network after the BTN in the future, right down to the subscriber fees. So, to counter their growing PR problem, Delany and Siverman embarked on an extended drive through the cornfields of middle America to make their case." (continued)

(continued)
The BTN plans to show more than 100 regular-season men's basketball games per season, 55 women's hoops games and 170 events involving what athletics directors call non-revenue sports. Individual universities will also provide more than 600 hours of non-sports features. At least 70 of the 500 events planned for broadcast wil involve Ohio State teams. The Big Ten upped the ante Wednesday with the announcement that at least seven--and perhaps as many as 11--of OSU's 18 regular season Big Ten men's basketball games will be shown on BTN. A few non-conference games could land there as well. In total, 64 of the 99 Big Ten Conference regular season games will be shown ONLY on BTN. It is only the premiere matchups that make it to ESPN or CBS. None will be shown by a local broadcast station. Silverman insisted that kind of programming will be devoured by college sports fans throughout the Big Ten region and make the BTN more than just a "niche network". "There is no BTN if we're not giving fans what they want, " Silverman said. "We know the network will have a broad appeal because the entire region has such close ties to the universities." But the cable companies are having none of it. To them, BTN consists of a few football and basketball games sprinkled among countless hours of programming few people will ever watch. "From an overall perspective, it's important for us that fans do understand it's a two-game issue at this point", said Judy Barbao, director of public affairs for Time Warner's Mid-Ohio division. "As a Buckeye fan myself, I know every game is important, but the thing we keep going to is that our customers will be asked to pay $1.10 per month, and that is all year round, will beyond the couple of times a year they are likely to tune in." Though the BTN folks say they have agreements with more than 80 cable providers to put the network on their expanded basic lineups, those 80% represent only about 20% of the potential audience. Time Warner is the 2nd largest cable provider in the US and has about 2.2 million subscribers in Ohio alone.........All of them have stood firm that BTN belongs on a sports tier. On tune with Fuel TV, the Tennis channel, CSTV, NBA TV and three Fox college sports channels for an additional charge to the customer of $4.95 per month.........


Either way, whether the cable channels get their way or Delany gets his way, you the fan are the loosers. Is this the beginning of the great decline in college sports? After all, insisting games be pay per view will only cause less people to be exposed to the sport. I predict that little by little interest will wane as interest in college atheltics will slowly die out and it will serve them right!!!!!!!!!!

I am a Big Ten fan and I understand your concern but I also a Yankee fan and when the YES network was estimated to be worth $3 billion, three times the value of the Yankees you cannot be surprised. With teams like Michigan already having over 100,000 fans at every game since 1975 it is not like you can significantly improve attendence. Sure you can build more luxury boxes but it is a big business and this is the next step whether you like it or not.

Originally posted by poundlee
I am a Big Ten fan and I understand your concern but I also a Yankee fan and when the YES network was estimated to be worth $3 billion, three times the value of the Yankees you cannot be surprised. With teams like Michigan already having over 100,000 fans at every game since 1975 it is not like you can significantly improve attendence. Sure you can build more luxury boxes but it is a big business and this is the next step whether you like it or not.

I understand it is big business, however, there is good business sense and bad business sense. In Ohio, Ohio State football is not a sport it is a religion. I pity these misguided souls who will incur the wrath of the Ohio State faithfull who will be unable to watch the first two games of the season. God have mercy on their souls.

As with everything else, greed kills. Speaking of greed and baseball, look how the sport has declined over the years. Look at the big spenders of baseball such as the Yankees and notice how it has effected the sport throughout the country. Now baseball is divided between the "haves" and "have nots". The "haves", such as the Yankees, use the other teams who are the "have nots" as nothing less than a farm system. Now interest throughout the country has waned except in areas where there are teams who are the "haves" who are able to compete with teams like the Yankees. Now those who live in the "have not" areas will have continued decreased fan interest which will mean decreased exposure to subsequent generations of possible baseball fans. Therefore, in college football, I predict that as there is less and less exposure of the sport to the common man because of financial obstacles such as pay per view that less and less future generations will be exposed to the sport which will subsequently cause the sport to die a slow and painful death over time as baseball has incurred.

Originally posted by poundlee
I am a Big Ten fan and I understand your concern but I also a Yankee fan and when the YES network was estimated to be worth $3 billion, three times the value of the Yankees you cannot be surprised. With teams like Michigan already having over 100,000 fans at every game since 1975 it is not like you can significantly improve attendence. Sure you can build more luxury boxes but it is a big business and this is the next step whether you like it or not.

I have a bit of trouble with the idea of money being made here. The players can NOT make any money, and many will NEVER make money playing NFL.

Next, someone is making mad cash while unpaid players get injured... sometimes career ending injuries. If all the profits beyond reasonable pay were going to education for the schools and towns of the teams, I wouldn't have a problem... but I fear this isn't the case at all.

P-

Originally posted by Phlabibit
I have a bit of trouble with the idea of money being made here. The players can NOT make any money, and many will NEVER make money playing NFL.

Next, someone is making mad cash while unpaid players get injured... sometimes career ending injuries. If all the profits beyond reasonable pay were going to education for the schools and towns of the teams, I wouldn't have a problem... but I fear this isn't the case at all.

P-

Let me tell you, universities are money making machines to say the least. Just look at how tuition increases year by year. Look at how ticket prices to games increase year by year. They dangle the fruits of a better life via higher education and interest in college athletics as bait for raping you financially. For me, this is the last straw. Even though I am a fan of college athletics, I REFUSE to pay the BTN one cent for their unholy endevours and I pray many, many more will follow in my foot steps. Perhaps I will find other venues for intertaining myself.

Originally posted by whodey
Let me tell you, universities are money making machines to say the least. Just look at how tuition increases year by year. Look at how ticket prices to games increase year by year. They dangle the fruits of a better life via higher education and interest in college athletics as bait for raping you financially. For me, this is the last straw. Even though ...[text shortened]... ny more will follow in my foot steps. Perhaps I will find other venues for intertaining myself.

I never understood the excitement of college sports... Football or Hoops. Baseball is my favorite, but college baseball is NOTHING compared to these two giants.

I think as long as these schools are making mad cash for what they do the kids should share in some of the wealth at least... even if they don't get a dime until they graduate. If all of them went to NBA or NFL when they were done, I wouldn't feel this way.

Sure some of them get a scholarship to these schools to play, but they are rushed through school and very few of them get a proper education at all. I remember some story about taking a test and there were questions like "How many points do you get for completing a 2 point conversion?"

Damn, can you dumb it up any more, please?! I just can't get behind it especially as the rest of the world look at US students in general as lazy and stupid.

P-

All terrific posts!!

Come on over to the Pac 10, the Conference of Champions.

Or just say screw it and watch baseball. The Little League World Series is on now.

Originally posted by Frank Burns
All terrific posts!!

Come on over to the Pac 10, the Conference of Champions.

Or just say screw it and watch baseball. The Little League World Series is on now.

You see that catch!?!?!??! WOW, that kid is a SUPERSTAR!

P-

would i like to see all my teams games on tv for free. Of course. But let's be serious there are more free TV games then ever. They even make bowl games 1 a night four over a month so you can see them in a non-paper view setting. They extend schedules so there are even more games on. Don't count how many games you have to pay for, it is more fair to see how many games you don't pay for.

Originally posted by Frank Burns
All terrific posts!!

Come on over to the Pac 10, the Conference of Champions.

Or just say screw it and watch baseball. The Little League World Series is on now.

The PAC 10? If you read my post you would understant that IF the BTN is a success the other conferences like the PAC 10 are next!! Soon you to will have to pay to watch those in the PAC 10 play ball. If they had their way, no game on TV in the world of college sports would be free.

Originally posted by poundlee
would i like to see all my teams games on tv for free. Of course. But let's be serious there are more free TV games then ever. They even make bowl games 1 a night four over a month so you can see them in a non-paper view setting. They extend schedules so there are even more games on. Don't count how many games you have to pay for, it is more fair to see how many games you don't pay for.

That's just it. We now have free sports to watch, however, this, I think, marks the beginning of the end for it all. If they had their way all games would be pay per view.

Let me just say one thing in regards to having sporting events in general that are free in terms of it being good business sense. What is better than free advertisement? What business would turn it down? Yet this is what we are seeing in the world of sports when the general public are made to pay to watch sporting events. The sporting events themselves are the advertisement for the business of sports and what entices interest from the general public.

i used to think you were right. I used to think that Cable and ESPN and TBS and yES and Nessen would ruin baseball. I mean it used to be free. Now there are more games than ever on TV. There are still free games. Some are part of basic cable but there are still games. I thought there would be less fan interest. Now there are on-line discussions, there is 24 hour sports radio (two competition station where i live), there are sports forums in chess sites. There are record attendance in virtually ever sport. Teams are still sold and valued for new records. When i was a kid, there was a rule one big team per year went to a bowl. Another rule that each team could be televised only one per year. There is still no better time to be a TV sports vewier.

Originally posted by poundlee
i used to think you were right. I used to think that Cable and ESPN and TBS and yES and Nessen would ruin baseball. I mean it used to be free. Now there are more games than ever on TV. There are still free games. Some are part of basic cable but there are still games. I thought there would be less fan interest. Now there are on-line discussions, there is ...[text shortened]... m could be televised only one per year. There is still no better time to be a TV sports vewier.

Perhaps you are right. But only because it seems most people today pay to watch TV. In fact, I don't know of anyone who does not pay to watch TV in some form or another. It reminds me of a nature documentary I saw about the Amazon jungle. They stumbled upon a village with grass huts and much to their suprise there was a satellite dish and a TV that the natives were all watching!!! I beleive they were watching Star Treck, that is, even though they did not understand a single word of it. LOL.

Anyhew, here is the big problem with BTN. The BTN is insisting that it be added on to every subscriber whether they want it or not just as they do ESPN and CNN etc. This is because they know that more people will be exposed to Big Ten sports which will then mean more fan interest in the end. However, the cable companies recognize that the bait for watching the BTN is only football, and to a smaller degree basketball. It reminds me of the fiasco the Olympics had several years ago. They had pay per view for every sport playing. However, only a few sports had general public interest such as hockey, for example. The other sports had next to no interest thus their pay per view endevour flopped because the events that had the most public interest was televised for free thus there was no need to subscribe for pay per view to watch them. In effect, the 24/7 coverage of the Big Ten would be the same deal. No one would watch except for a few select games a year. Therefore, the cable companies are screaming foul due to the prospect of general viewer disinterest. If the cable companies get their way and make the BTN a seperate package deal, unlike ESPN and the other major cable networks, then they will suffer from gradual fan disinterest due to decreased viewer exposure over time. In effect, the BTN would then be a seperate package deal like HBO or Shotime only you would be paying for a service 24/7 for events you only care about watching in the fall. It would be like HBO only showing movies of interest in the fall and the rest of the year no one cares. Eventually, I think a pay per view package like HBO that might only have movies worth watching a small percentage of the year will probably go under. I think this the future of the BTN if the cable companies do not capitulate. I pray they don't!!!