Big Ten-Comcast: No match

The college football season is only a few days away now and fans can sit back and cheer for their favorite teams only if they have the right service provider. The Big Ten network, all set to launch in two days could not convert the weeks of negotiations into an agreement with the cable provider Comcast, which provides cable TV to 35 percent of the homes in the Big Ten Network's core Midwest target area. So Comcast subscribers might have to miss out the games till a deal in reached.

Comcast maintains that the Big Ten Network will have a niche audience, so it should be placed on the sports tier, which means it should be made available only to the people who pay for that specific package.

But Big Ten insists that the network should be included in the basic package considering the huge demand for the games in the Midwest. It basically, wants a home on what is the extended basic tier of service.

Also, Big Ten wants Comcast to pay $1.10 per customer per month to the network which according to the latter is too high.

“We have said for at least a month that if we can agree that the network belongs on standard basic cable, then we can negotiate everything else, including the price,” said Mike Vest, a media relations manager for the network. “They just haven’t negotiated with us at all. They have said ‘sports tier or nothing’ and that’s not really a negotiation process.”

While Comcast is adamant on putting the network on a sports tier, making it a subscription-only channel, the Big Ten maintains they essentially won’t settle for anything less than being a part of the standard basic cable package. While the two companies squabble on the issue, it’s the audience who is at loss.

Although, more than 100 cable companies have agreed to pick up the network, big players including Time Warner and Dish network have yet to settle on something.

The Big Ten however, is available to some 17-million homes, according to the Network’s president and those with Direct TV or AT&T should be able to catch it.