.jpeg?1371057738)
 Scott DochtermanI'm originally from Burlington, and I'm a 1997 Western Illinois University graduate. I've worked in Burlington, Muscatine, Fort Dodge and [...] |
|
Email the author
BTN, Dish Network at impasse, deal ends Aug. 31
No deal means Dish customers miss UNI-Wisconsin this Saturday, Iowa-Iowa State on Sept. 8
A negotiation impasse between the Big Ten Network and Dish Network could prevent the satellite company’s customers from watching college football’s opening weekend this Saturday on BTN.
“Dish’s current agreement to distribute (BTN) expires August 31, this Friday,” said Elizabeth Conlisk, the BTN’s vice president of communications and university relations. “At this point, we’re pretty far apart. It looks like Dish could stop carrying BTN.”
BTN is scheduled to broadcast four Big Ten football games this Saturday. Iowa’s opener against Northern Illinois will air on ESPNU, but BTN will carry Northern Iowa’s 2:30 p.m. game at Wisconsin. Iowa’s games against in-state rivals Iowa State (Sept. 8 ) and Northern Iowa (Sept. 15 ) will air on BTN. A time and network for the Hawkeyes’ Sept. 25 game against Central Michigan has not been disclosed.
Among the BTN games airing this Saturday include new Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer’s debut against Miami (Ohio) and Purdue’s Danny Hope coaching against his former team, Eastern Kentucky. Indiana State at Indiana is the network’s other game.
Dish Network was one of the first companies to sign a distribution deal with the BTN before the cable company launched on Aug. 30, 2007. BTN is jointly owned by the Big Ten (49 percent) and Fox (51 percent).
Conlisk said Fox representatives will continue to negotiate with Dish Network. BTN has set up a website to discuss the the situation at www.iwantbtn.com and a phone number: 855-WANT-B1o.
“We do hope it will be resolved,” Conlisk said.
Attempts to reach Dish Network representatives were unsuccessful Sunday morning.
Dish Network has experienced several recent distribution stalemates, including a local dispute with Sinclair Broadcast Group’s KGAN and KFXA in Cedar Rapids. KGAN announced on its website that Sinclair and Dish reached an agreement in principle on a retransmission consent agreement. Dish Network has a high-profile impasse with AMC that began July 1.
Branstad seeking federal disaster status for 47 Counties
Police investigate Dayton-Evansdale abductions connection
DOT says pond-building effort is working for turtles
Iowa City passes what may be unique traffic surveillance law
EPIC RESURGENCE: Five Years After the Flood
Time Machine section debuts on TheGazette.com
same crap every sports season with dish or direct. we the fans are getting shit on by big tv industries. if this doesn’t get settled and I lose BTN then I will be dropping the dish.
I’ve already sent them an email on this.
I’m fed up with the BS
Steve you might realize much of the blame is the greediness of the schools and the formation of the BTN. Remember when ALL Iowa BB games- even preseason were shown on the Hawkeye Network- free? Went bye bye with BTN – this is pay TV not free off air and when they force Dish, Direct and the cable compaines to pay for the service for EVERY subscriber they have when maybe 20-30% ever watch it and top that with increasing the fee per EVERY customer every couple years be prepared to pay a lot more for your satellite or cable bill with BTN and DO NOT COMPLAIN- providers are raising the rates because their rates have increased – Best solution? Charge for BTN like HBO and other premium channels @ $10- $15 / month and let those that watch pay for it instead of charging ALL customers a smaller amout regardless of whether they even watch it
You’re really not making an argument against the BTN, just TV in general. Why not do the same for the Weather channel, Discovery Channel or MTV, then? If you’re going to advocate for a la carte cable, go all in. There are plenty of channels that I’d wager most people would give up to get others. Even the major networks have been having the same disputes with providers regularly now. Everyone wants a premium for their content.
Your better off calling in and talking to someone than emailing them. I called three times today. The first lady said only Ohio would be affected, the next girl had heard nothing, and finally i talked to a guy who said that this was a shocked to Dish because after the whole AMC issues they contacted all of their networks and worked out stuff regarding these type of issues. The guy told me that by Wednesday they should have a news release out about this and to keep watching their site for more information.
I have to agree in part with Andy (above) about the greed of the schools and our conference commissioner, who makes 1.6 million a year. When the BTN first came on the air, most of the cable companies didn’t carry it, so the Big Ten told us “switch to the dish.” (I kept my cable, thank you.) Now those people who switched are stuck. In this conference (and college sports in general), money is at the top of the list and the fans are at the bottom.
It depends on if you think that sports fans only care about football. We were lucky that for Iowa that games were on the regional network ,but I don’t think that was the case everywhere. Other sports never got any TV, with the exception of men’s basketball. And even there, I feel like there were more untelevised games in the past.
I’m not sure the fans are necessarily at the bottom when you can find hundreds and hundreds more hours of content across the networks/platforms than you ever used to.
But much of the content on BTN has very few viewers. Tennis? Swimming? I like the old classic games and some of the mid-week preview shows during football season. But I don’t like the decision by the power-brokers to leave fans out in the cold because of the insatiable demand for more money. I haven’t forgotten the ’07-’08 season, when they took the games off of free TV and put them on BTN before they negotiated deals with the cable companies. That told me right there that the BTN brass wasn’t too concerned about the fans.
DON’T LET HAPPEN TO AMC, HAPPEN TO THE BIG TEN NETWORK. PLEASE KEEP BTN. IF YOU KEEP DROPPING PROGRAMING YOU MAY LOOSE ME.
I feel for you guys that have DISH. I have Directv and it could happen to me. You never see them have disagreement with QVC, HSN, shopnbc, or any other vast channels that show infomercials. I have a beef with Directv to ditch all the infomercials and pick up more local channels. I am hitting a brick wall on that one. I am not a movie watcher and would wish they have more sports programming packages that would be more affordable and be able to ditch channels I never watch.