The Big Ten Battles Big Cable

摘要

The new Big Ten Network may be set to rough up the cable giants. BTN, which is carried by DirecTV and smaller cable providers, offers sports events from the 11 universities that make up the Big Ten Conference. Neither Comcast nor Time Warner chose to carry the channel. They say their third-quarter subscriber losses (in the tens of thousands) aren't focused in Big Ten territory. But Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield figures "the pain is set to reach a whole new level" during the college basketball season, when folks stay indoors more often. And BTN, owned by the universities and Fox, is running ads asking fans to switch to satellite.