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Cable TV companies face more competition
Published on Tuesday, Aug 14, 2007
Jim Delany, commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, said in a call a couple of months back that if the Big Ten Network wasn't carried on Time Warner Cable by the first of August, he would have to tell the league's rabid sports fans to turn to other sources to find the channel once it launches.
In other words, Delany was willing to tell fans to go to DirecTV or to AT&T U-verse. He knows that people who love their sports really love their sports.
Typically more affluent than the general public, college fans support their teams with their eyes and their wallets. Big Ten fans are more likely, in my view, to abandon a video service that doesn't carry the channel than are fans of the NFL. In other words, Time Warner needs to start paying attention to what's at stake.
Some might argue that the BTN and the NFL Network are in similar situations. I cannot disagree more. These are two vastly different situations.
For those who need a refresher, both BTN and NFL Network are battling for placement on cable systems' extended basic tiers those first 70 or so channels customers can receive without a cable box. In this region, the Big Ten has a more compelling case than the NFL Network. I'm more likely, as a resident of Ohio, to care more about missing the Ohio State-Akron football game this season than the Indianapolis Colts-Atlanta Falcons game on Thanksgiving night simply because there's more of a vested interest in it for me. And I'm sure that folks residing in That Place Up North feel the same about the prospect of missing Michigan Wolverines games. For that reason alone, BTN is worthy of consideration for placement in the basic tier alongside ESPN, ESPN2 and FSN Ohio.
It's not as if the fledgling cable station is being unreasonable with respect to economic issues. Delany said it is are asking $1 per subscriber in the conference's eight-state region and 20 cents per customer outside of it. That's not money grubbing; it's recognizing your limitations.
He said it is far less than cable companies pay for other programming.
Yes, Time Warner is in an awkward and tenuous position. Fifteen years ago, if you wanted all the sports, movies and Skinemax you could consume at any given time, the cable companies were the only place to go.
Then the little dishes started popping up. DirecTV, the originator of satellite broadcasting, now has more than 15 million customers. DISH Network claims a little more than 13 million. In an approximately 12-year span, two satellite services managed to take a huge chunk out of cable's business.
It's only getting more and more competitive.
In this state, the Ohio Video Competition Act goes into effect next month. For Time Warner, that means more competition something that already has begun in some parts of Northeast Ohio as AT&T continues to move in with its U-verse service, a hybrid of copper and fiber-optic line used to deliver video and Internet services. Look around selected spots in the Akron area and you will see a fleet of AT&T vans.
AT&T and DirecTV already have deals with the Big Ten
Network (and NFL Network) and a deal between BTN and DISH Network is expected before the channel launches Aug. 30. Yet, in Time Warner's third largest region, the one with arguably the most rabid college sports fans, there is no deal.
Is Delany ready to tell fans to go elsewhere? He hasn't, because it seems there has been reason for optimism. Nonetheless, he didn't tour the state's media outlets last week simply to say hello.
The tour was all about getting his message out and putting some polite pressure on the area's dominant cable service. Time Warner needs to pay attention. Looking at its channel lineup in my area, I counted three home-shopping channels. You're telling me that one of them couldn't be booted to the digital tier to make way for a station with some relevant programming? I don't need a new vacuum cleaner, computer or gourmet cookware.
Mark Silverman, president of the Big Ten Network, said it would take the station five to seven days to flip the switch and get the BTN operational on a given cable system. Being a little more than two weeks from launch, the game is going deep into the third quarter, Delany said. If something doesn't budge soon, both sides will be looking at a tough two-minute warning.
George M. Thomas can be reached at sportswriterabj@sbcglobal.net. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/sportsblitz/
Jim Delany, commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, said in a call a couple of months back that if the Big Ten Network wasn't carried on Time Warner Cable by the first of August, he would have to tell the league's rabid sports fans to turn to other sources to find the channel once it launches.
Get the full article here.
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