Time Warner To Carry Big Ten Network

Time Warner Cable and the Big Ten Network have finally hooked up, agreeing to a deal just before the college football season kicks off this weekend.

Details of the deal have not been released, but fans in the eight states where the Big Ten schools reside will certainly be happy to find the BTN available on another pay television outlet. Last year, many fans in the Big Ten footprint made the switch to satellite television.  DIRECTV and DISH Network had carriage agreements in place last year, allowing them to pull in new subscribers from Time Warner. News of the deal hurts DISH Network and DIRECTV, which stood to gain from a continued stalemate between Time Warner and the Big Ten Network.

The deal will place the BTN on the expanded basic level of service from Time Warner, according to according to the network. Time Warner has operations in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania among other states located outside of Big Ten country. The dispute had two major issues which held up a deal. Time Warner wanted to place the network on a sports tier, meaning access only to subscribers who agreed to pay more per month for extra sports networks. Second, the BTN asking price of $1.10 per subscriber was something Time Warner was unwilling to pay.

Comcast, the largest cable television company in America also resisted the BTN last year, but finally came to a carriage agreement over the summer at the reported price of .70 cents per subscriber.

The agreement came suddenly, as last week both sides were battling through the media, blaming each other for their inability to reach a deal. The Big Ten Network released the following statement, putting Time Warner squarely behind the eight-ball.

“While proposals have recently been exchanged, there is a wide gap between what Time Warner and its other competitors would seem to agree is reasonable and fair. Somehow America’s top cable operator, largest telephone company and two satellite providers have each decided to make the Big Ten Network available to their customers. There are another 230 or so similar companies, serving more than 55 million homes and seven out of every 10 folks in the eight Big Ten states, that each carry the network, too.”

A fairly tight argument there. It doesn’t seem to be an isolated incident with Time Warner. The cable operator is still fighting with the NFL over carriage of the NFL Network. No progress has been reported recently in that battle. In this fight, it looks like Time Warner did not want to endure another season of subscriber losses to DIRECTV and DISH Network.