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Big Ten Network still courting Charter
Make no mistake, Big Ten Network has been quite successful in getting itself on a number of providers, but to this day, Charter subscribers in the eight-state Big Ten footprint are still missing out. According to a new report, the network is still anxious to get a deal done with Charter, as quite a chunk of Minnesota Gophers fans are currently cheering through Tubby Smith's inaugural season without the ability to view some 17 of the team's games. 'Course, we've no idea if Charter is even close to forking out the coinage required to land a carriage agreement, but at least one side isn't backing down, right?
Big Ten Network lands on Wide Open West
Considering just how zany this past weekend was in the world of college football, it's good to see that even more folks now have access to even more games. Wide Open West, which serves around 400,000 domiciles in the Big Ten's eight-state footprint, announced that it had landed a deal with the Big Ten Network to position the channel "on its expanded basic package." This agreement pushes the network beyond the "the 30 million subscriber mark within a month of its launch," but a number of major players (namely Cox, Charter, Comcast, Time Warner Cable [partly owned by Time Warner, parent company of AOL, which owns Engadget], and Mediacom) have still refused to shake hands on terms.
DISH gets deal done with the BigTen Network
Wow, that was some game against Michigan and Appalachian state last weekend on the BigTen Network. We'd tell you how great the HD looked if we actually got to see it, but with all the providers sitting on the sidelines, we're not sure if anyone was able to enjoy the HD broadcast. Comcast fans have to wait longer than DirecTV -- when does hell start freezing again? -- who should be carrying the games in HD as soon as DirecTV 10 is operational, but DISH subscirbers get to start enjoying HD college football tomorrow, thanks to a deal that was struck yesterday that puts the BigTen Network on DISH through the next basketball season. At that point it will continue to be carried in at least BigTen country on the America's Top 100 tier.
