B1G Media Rights / Comcast / Conference Realignment

BWBW · Apr 13, 2018

I live outside Boston and Comcast's Big Ten coverage sucked anyway. No overflow, so little or no Illini for me (either FB or BB). Sometimes streaming.

Couldn't convince the family to switch to FIOS. We've starting looking at cord-cutting. Maybe this threat by Comcast will help nudge us along.

haasi · Apr 13, 2018

Comcast dropping BTN in non-B1G markets

FiveStar said:
As someone who is considering cutting the cord, how do you watch games/tv shows with a streaming service if you can’t see it live? I literally dvr everything and catch it later. Even if I’m only on a half hour delay that allows me to skip commercials.

The Comcast thing doesn’t affect me yet, but depending on how this goes for them, I guess other companies might follow suit.

Hulu live lets you record. I have a subscription to all illini basketball games and it records them automatically regardless of channel. But I think you still have to bear with Hulu’s commercials.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

BlueLeader · Apr 13, 2018

haasi said:
I gave up cable but have Hulu live. About $40 a month, tons of live channels including ESPN, btn, fsn etc. streams through the roku or whatever else you’ve got

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Really thinking about doing this... How quickly are shows on demand. For instance you lose the DVR by doing this, how big of a hit is it with Hulu?

BlindLoyalty · Apr 13, 2018

Cord cutters IIRC, BTN is available on Various packages with DIRECTV NOW, Hulu live tv, YouTube TV, PlayStation Vue and fuboTV. Often you can get a free streaming device with prepaid service. DTVNow has free Apple TV 4K w/ 3 months prepaid or free fireTV w/ two months prepaid.

haasi · Apr 13, 2018

Comcast dropping BTN in non-B1G markets

BlueLeader said:
Really thinking about doing this... How quickly are shows on demand. For instance you lose the DVR by doing this, how big of a hit is it with Hulu?

I think instantly or pretty close? Hulu Live also has cloud DVR, so if something is being broadcast live on hulu you can record it. https://help.hulu.com/en-us/what-is-cloud-dvr

Honestly my main and maybe only real objection is that the stream is a couple minutes behind live TV, so if you’re on the phone with someone who is watching live live, it’s really annoying.

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BlindLoyalty · Apr 13, 2018

haasi said:
I think instantly or pretty close? Hulu Live also has cloud DVR, so if something is being broadcast live on hulu you can record it. https://help.hulu.com/en-us/what-is-cloud-dvr

Honestly my main and maybe only real objection is that the stream is a couple minutes behind live TV, so if you’re on the phone with someone who is watching live live, it’s really annoying.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Most of these services give you login privileges to the channel App directly, often eliminating the need for a dvr. Just login to the BTN, Discovery channel, tnt, etc app on your streaming device and watch the program on demand after its initial airing.

disaacso · Apr 13, 2018

haasi said:
I think instantly or pretty close? Hulu Live also has cloud DVR, so if something is being broadcast live on hulu you can record it. https://help.hulu.com/en-us/what-is-cloud-dvr

Honestly my main and maybe only real objection is that the stream is a couple minutes behind live TV, so if you’re on the phone with someone who is watching live live, it’s really annoying.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

you can also look into playon.tv if you need a dvr. works well, but is pc only

WhiteRhino · Apr 13, 2018

Verified Insider said:
As a Northern Virginia guy, Comcast does in fact serve this area. But good thing I have DirecTV.

And yes, Comcast is available in New York.

That map is for Xfinity -- their high speed internet. It's not for cable TV.

There are a LOT of Big Ten fans in this area, aside from the Maryland fans. Penn State is practically the "local" team, and you can find big clusters of fans from most Big Ten schools. For those with Comcast, this will really suck.

This will be a good test to find out the current value of adding Maryland and Rutgers. If enough B1G fans in New York, Northern Virginia, and Washington, D.C. cancel their Comcast and make it clear that it is because of Comcast dropping BTN, it will give the Big Ten the leverage it needs to negotiate a new deal.

We went through this all before when the BTN was just starting and we learned that when cable companies start losing thousands of subscribers they will cave.

jmilt7 · Apr 13, 2018

pruman91 said:
true....but all you need is a friend or family that has access to BTN and sign in on their account....at least that's what I've been doing for over a year now...

I tried this. It was a couple years ago so I don't remember if it was the exact same situation. But I remember trying to use my sister's comcast account to log into BTN app (or whatever the procedure was) and for some reason it would not work. Contacted Comcast and I guess they sensed there was something fishy about my situation. On the other hand, probably just my luck. Works for everyone else but me.

Ransom Stoddard · Apr 13, 2018

IlliniJim20 said:
Honest question, are there enough subscribers that it might actually suck for Comcast in these markets? Will enough people care enough to drop Comcast for another provided or DirectTV?

I may not drop Comcast entirely, but I will drop the $10/month sports package that they have/had BTN in. If x number of other people do that, it causes their subscriber numbers for all those other packages to go down, doesn't help Comcast negotiate deals later on.

Second and Chalmers · Apr 13, 2018

WhiteRhino said:
Maryland was still a great addition almost any way you look at it:

* Great all-around sports program (look at all the B1G championships they've won)
* Flagship university for the State of Maryland and access into the Washington DC, Northern Virginia and Mid-Atlantic markets
* More competitive football program than people give them credit for (and have made major investments recently)
* Excellent academics
* Very fertile recruiting area

Rutgers is a long play athletically as it's going to take them a while to catch up with the rest of the conference, but they have also been investing lots of resources.

Regardless, Rutgers is the large flagship state school for New Jersey, which is a populous East Coast state. It has brought the B1G more visibility in the New York City market. And it is also fertile recruiting ground for both athletics and students.

Delaney said that the decision to add Maryland and Rutgers was a 100 year decision, and I think looking at it in that light it will make more sense -- in addition to adding a lot of revenue to the conference in the short term.

Plus, once the ACC added Syracuse and Boston College, it blocked them from completely taking over the East Coast market.

Maryland was a great addition if you accept the logic that additions are desirable and quasi-necessary.

That logic was total bunk in November 2012 when those moves were announced and that becomes clearer by the day.

The East Coast is not and will never be Big Ten country. The Big Ten is a brand that evokes a specific history and specific imagery in a specific part of the country. Its schools are worth more than the sum of their parts because of that. The original (well, "original") 10 teams, if that were still the conference membership, would be in the strongest position of any conference for the future media environment because of the specificity and historical pull of its appeal. Now it's just another one of these meaningless Frankensteins.

IlliniFan85 · Apr 13, 2018

champaignchris said:
Looks like the Midwestern ex-pats living in a good chunk of Florida, Houston, and L.A. are screwed though.

Colorado was number 4 for market served by comcast and that affects Denver and where I live (just outside of Colorado Springs) too. And I know this area has a large number of Big Ten fans. There are 5 military bases in Colorado Springs alone, so that is what allows for the large Big Ten fan base.

westms77 · Apr 13, 2018

The conference networks think very highly of themselves. Direct TV doesn't have the Pac12 network. Pain in the butt here in AZ.

haasi · Apr 13, 2018

Comcast dropping BTN in non-B1G markets

Second and Chalmers said:
The East Coast is not and will never be Big Ten country. The Big Ten is a brand that evokes a specific history and specific imagery in a specific part of the country. Its schools are worth more than the sum of their parts because of that. The original (well, "original") 10 teams, if that were still the conference membership, would be in the strongest position of any conference for the future media environment because of the specificity and historical pull of its appeal. Now it's just another one of these meaningless Frankensteins.

I tend to agree that expansion probably wasn’t necessary but not fully convinced. However, if we were going to expand, I would certainly have been in favor of doing so only where there was a strong fit geographically as well as in terms of the type of university (large, academically strong, etc.).

Universities I would have liked to add: Notre Dame, Pitt. Other less appealing candidates- Iowa State, Mizzou, Tennessee, KU, Kentucky, Cincy. Obviously money a huge issue for any of these negotiations, and with some schools I guess it just didn’t make sense one way or the other.

Rutgers was a crazy add- very far afield, not a great school athletically, and very little chance it would help us break into NY market in any sort of meaningful way. Rutgers not a huge deal there, pretty peripheral. I don’t mind Maryland as much because its got a great athletics program and is a dab closer in, and Maryland definitely helps more in DC than Rutgers does in NY, but Maryland definitely also diluted Midwest nature of the conference.

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jmilt7 · Apr 13, 2018

Second and Chalmers said:
Maryland was a great addition if you accept the logic that additions are desirable and quasi-necessary.

That logic was total bunk in November 2012 when those moves were announced and that becomes clearer by the day.

The East Coast is not and will never be Big Ten country. The Big Ten is a brand that evokes a specific history and specific imagery in a specific part of the country. Its schools are worth more than the sum of their parts because of that. The original (well, "original") 10 teams, if that were still the conference membership, would be in the strongest position of any conference for the future media environment because of the specificity and historical pull of its appeal. Now it's just another one of these meaningless Frankensteins.

Put in a succinct manner something I have thought about ever since it happened. So I second this. But then I still want to cut Penn St free too. And Northwestern just because

Foggy Notion · Apr 13, 2018

WhiteRhino said:
This has to be a joke.

The only reason the Big Ten Network was successful in the first place was because of the large and loyal fan bases that forced all of the providers to carry the network or lose a substantial number of subscribers. If you remember, it took a little while to get full carriage, but the Big Ten eventually won out.

Now, compare that to the Pac 12 Network that has struggled to get full carriage and never worked out a deal with Direct TV.

This latest move by Comcast is just a negotiating ploy. Let's see how it all plays out before you declare winners and losers.

Even with reduced Big Ten Network money, though, the B1G would still be ahead of every conference but the SEC in revenue, just based on their new Fox and ESPN deals.

The Big Ten's negotiating tactics are not inspiring. Although we finally got the network a few years ago in the Bay Area, it was not in HD and the image quality rendered the games basically unwatchable.

NeaforThree · Apr 13, 2018

jmilt7 said:
I tried this. It was a couple years ago so I don't remember if it was the exact same situation. But I remember trying to use my sister's comcast account to log into BTN app (or whatever the procedure was) and for some reason it would not work. Contacted Comcast and I guess they sensed there was something fishy about my situation. On the other hand, probably just my luck. Works for everyone else but me.

Yeah, my dad still lives in Champaign and I use his Comcast account for pretty much all Illini sports and it's worked for me for the past year.

Also for other people who don't have access: reddit ncaaBBallstreams. You're welcome :thumb:

Deleted member 29907 · Apr 13, 2018

FiveStar said:
As someone who is considering cutting the cord, how do you watch games/tv shows with a streaming service if you can’t see it live? I literally dvr everything and catch it later. Even if I’m only on a half hour delay that allows me to skip commercials.

The Comcast thing doesn’t affect me yet, but depending on how this goes for them, I guess other companies might follow suit.

We're checking out both Youtube and DirectTV Now for cord cutting. Youtube lets you have 6 people on the account and 3 simultaneous streams (TV, phone, ipdad, tv, whatever) and has unlimited DVR (cloud) type capability. Direct TV Now has 2 simultaneous and I think DVR cloud either just now or soon to come. Most Sports apps/stations let you connect to their replay service as well.

cyfairslam · Apr 13, 2018

Check out DirecTV Now. As of today it is not too expensive and I was able to drop HBO and the sports package from Comcast as well as one cable box. It made it on top of Comcast somewhat affordable. Service is improving and new features (DVR) coming this spring they say.

jmilt7 · Apr 13, 2018

Spoon House said:
I'm glad I'm not the only who sees it this way.

Adding Buttgers and Maryland at the time was widely heralded as a smart move by Delaney to encroach upon the East Coast and its huge pool of eyeballs (sorry for the gross imagery). But... if you're going to do that, why not pick a good BCS football school? Football is where the money is. And, yes, the other reasons you pointed out.

I for one, loved the imagery.

TheFameProtector · Apr 13, 2018

NewFan2011 said:
From the beginning, BTN was not a good deal for the cables. With the few games you're actually getting over the course of 365 days, 24 hours a day, it wasn't worth it. But a decade ago BTN could demand the tier they were on it because so many cable subscribers were demanding it.

Now, with all the streaming, cable is losing people and has to reduce their costs and thus their offerings. Cable subscribers look down the list of what they're being offered and each channel they don't want is almost a sore spot.

So lots of credit to Delany for milking it for all it was worth. Now he has to figure out how to properly monetize streaming where this is all going.

They need to offer a streaming offering for BTN alone that is less costly. The BTN Plus subscription costing more than a Netflix subscription is just hogwash. Lower that cost and perhaps the losses can be offset through more subscribers.

As a "millennial," I use YouTube TV and love it. Just like it took the music industry some time to adjust to the streaming world, cable/TV will do the same. But BTN should offer an option now to fill the gap created by Comcast. Just my two (relatively uninformed) cents.

KrushCow31 · Apr 13, 2018

If BTN offered a month by month online deal for $4.99 that let's you watch every game, I'd buy it for basketball. Instead a lot of games are still on ESPN and it's virtually useless to get BTN Plus in my opinion.

Second and Chalmers · Apr 13, 2018

ILL_INI said:
I disagree with S&C's contention that an "original" ten school Big Ten would be more valuable than the current makeup. Fox Sports and ESPN are not paying for a historical pull, or the Ivy League would be making out like bandits. They are paying for eyeballs.

This is true, and that's why I said I understood the rationale behind adding Penn State and Nebraska, because adding more premier football matchups makes the Big Ten TV contract a better TV ratings proposition. Though of course, the historical pull is also a part of the equation, especially for the rest of the package. Iowa-Purdue is going to draw better ratings than Iowa-Maryland, even if Maryland is a marginally better team. The historical interconnectedness of the schools is why I said they are more than the sum of their parts. Illinois is worth more as a TV property playing all of its historical rivals than as a Chicago market grab for the Big 12, for example.

But what happens when Fox Sports and ESPN aren't the middlemen anymore? That day is approaching. And when sports leagues and conferences are selling their product on a subscription basis, the ones that have the most emotional pull to their brands will succeed above and beyond the raw team strength of their conferences. Jim Delany has been selling that advantage (which the Big Ten had over every other college conference) for a handful of magic beans for years now.

It's the story of so many innovators. Delany saw in 1990 where the business was going to be in 2008, and now he sees in 2018 where the business is going to be in 2008.

illini92024 · Apr 13, 2018

Just made the switch to Hulu w/ B10, SEC, FS1&2, CBS sports and more. My kids were already raving about cutting the cord and cost. This just put me over the edge with cable.

Deleted member 11196 · Apr 13, 2018

westcoastillini said:
As a west coaster, This sux

For sure....
I just sent a message to Comcast on their website that dropping BTN for the west coast was a bad idea. I'd drop them totally except I need their internet connection.

B1G Media Rights / Comcast / Conference Realignment

BWBW

haasi

BlueLeader

BlindLoyalty

haasi

BlindLoyalty

disaacso

WhiteRhino

jmilt7

Ransom Stoddard

Ordained Dudeist Priest

Second and Chalmers

IlliniFan85

westms77

haasi

jmilt7

Foggy Notion

NeaforThree

Deleted member 29907

Guest

cyfairslam

jmilt7

TheFameProtector

KrushCow31

Former Krush Cow

Second and Chalmers

illini92024

Deleted member 11196

Guest