[NU Sports] The Big 10 monster

[Dennis W. Brandt]

I'm glad the channel is coming on the air, too.  But why must they demand an 
exorbitant amount from every subscriber?  I don't care that they want a 
larger advertising base.  That's their problem.  Wouldn't it be nice if I 
could force every library patron to buy my book as a condition of using the 
library?  Nice for me, that is.  (Hm-m-m-m)

The fact is, unless the local team is on the air, only a minority of TVs 
will be tuned to the Big 10 Channel, and it will be far from unanimous even 
when the local guys are playing.  Comcast is perfectly right (although they 
tried to inflict the same injury on our cable system with their own 
Philadelphia sports station).  The simple fact is that cable/satellite 
companies cannot continue to increase prices to add niche channels because 
their clients are sick of paying more and more for channels of increasingly 
narrow interest.  At some point the industry has to realize that the more 
channels you add, the less any one of them will be watched.  Let those who 
want these specialized channels pay for them.  (My bet is that Washington 
will soon require it.)  I am also concerned that I may frequently miss an NU 
game because they are is scheduled simultaneously with a Penn State game, 
which will always be the trump team in my neck of the woods.  Taped delay 
without "we move to further action" would be acceptable.  Even better would 
be allowing local channels to carry the Penn State game and keep Big 10 as 
an out-of-market channel.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Thiegs" <thiegs at umn.edu>
To: <AJWDBW at aol.com>; <rstetson at capps-assoc.com>; <tbng at comcast.net>; 
<nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 12:46 AM
Subject: RE: [NU Sports] The Big 10 monster


> I, for one, am very excited about the Big Ten Network.  Of course, the
> question for me is, "Will Dish Network carry it?"  I was at an event 
> tonight
> at which I had the opportunity to chat with an actual Big Ten Network
> employee, and I was pleased to hear that it sounds like Dish Network and 
> the
> Big Ten Network are close to a deal.  She acknowledged that Comcast is a
> more difficult situation.  However, I blame Comcast rather than the Big 
> Ten.
> A year and a half ago I switched from cable (then Time-Warner, since 
> merged
> with Comcast) after nine years of cable service because I had felt for 
> some
> time that they charged way too much for what I was getting, particularly
> compared with the satellite providers.  I got sick of trying to re-up and
> roll over promotional deals.  We were worried about whether the service
> would compare with cable, and our worries were completely unfounded.  I
> haven't regretted it a moment, with one significant exception:  I can't 
> get
> the local cable access channels on satellite.  I have that particular 
> brand
> of eccentricity (my wife thinks insanity) that makes me really like a lot 
> of
> those programs, but that's an issue for very few people.  It's been worth 
> it
> even having had to give those up.  -Joe
>
> P.S.  Don -- What beautiful artwork!
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
> Behalf Of AJWDBW at aol.com
> Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 8:39 PM
> To: rstetson at capps-assoc.com; tbng at comcast.net; nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Subject: Re: [NU Sports] The Big 10 monster
>
> There was an interesting, albeit lengthy, piece in the Minneapolis Star
> Tribune. It's focus is on the impact in Minnesota and the U of M football
> games
> but also paints a fairly informative picture of the situation. The link is
> _http://www.startribune.com/gophers/story/1261368.html_
> (http://www.startribune.com/gophers/story/1261368.html) .
> Don Williams C55
>
> PS. A  pen and ink rendering I did of University Hall and which was 
> donated
>
> as a door prize at the NGN dinner this past April is for sale through  the
> Northwestern University Alumni web site. You can get information by going 
> to
>
> _http://www.alumni.northwestern.edu/_ 
> (http://www.alumni.northwestern.edu/)
> and
> follow the prompts. Any profits I receive from the sales will be donated 
> to
> the  Walker fund.
> Don
>
>
>
> ************************************** See what's free at
> http://www.aol.com.
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