[NU Sports] The Big 10 monster

[Jeff Beamsley]

As others have said, this is a "vote with your feet" issue.

I'm not a big fan of our cable company either (Comcast), but I do buy their
phone service and their high-speed internet service as well as their cable
because it is a better deal than the phone company offered.

IMHO the cable companies are in a "maximize profit" mode because they know
that eventually this is all going to move to distribution over the Internet
and their business model is going to depend on their ability to lock up
content rather than charge for the delivery pipe.

Jeff




-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of Dennis W. Brandt
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 9:12 AM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] The Big 10 monster

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.
> _______________________________________________
> nwu-sports site list
> nwu-sports at tssi.com
> http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports
> 

_______________________________________________
nwu-sports site list
nwu-sports at tssi.com
http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports