Mediacom, Fox Spar Over Big Ten
Cable Op Claims Denied Rights To ISU Game Because It Won’t Carry BTN
By Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 8/30/2007 8:43:00 AM MT
Mediacom Communications is embroiled in yet another programming fight in the state of Iowa, claiming that Fox Cable Networks has denied its request to televise tonight’s college football match-up between the Iowa State University Cyclones and Kent State University because it won’t carry the Big Ten Network.
Mediacom, which has about 500,000 subscribers in the state of Iowa, made the request along with Iowa State University, according to a Mediacom press. Fox Cable distributes Big Ten Network games through Iowa Network Services to small cable operators and telcos in the state.
“Fox is utilizing deplorable anti-competitive tactics by depriving Iowa State students, alumni and fans their football season opener on cable television,” said Ed Pardini, senior vice president of Mediacom’s North Central Division. “Given that Iowa State is not a member of the Big Ten Conference, Cyclone fans should not be used as pawns in the Big Ten Network negotiations. We believe that Mediacom customers, particularly Cyclone supporters, will be outraged once they become aware that they are being held hostage to the unilateral demands of Fox.”
Mediacom said that it has had acquired rights to carry Iowa State’s first game of the season in the past – it was carried on its Mediacom Connections channel in 2006 – but said that Fox Sports Network declined to do the same this year because the game coincides with the scheduled launch of the Big Ten Network.
In fact, Mediacom has the rights to televise the first game of its local Big Ten Conference member – the University of Iowa – on Saturday through its Mediacom Connections channel. The rights to that contest are owned by ESPNU, said Mediacom vice president of legal affairs Tom Larsen. Mediacom carries ESPNU on its digital sports tier and asked the network if it could carry the game on its analog channel, which ESPNU allowed, Larsen said.
Fox Sports National Cable Networks, which co-owns BTN with the member schools, said in a statement that ISU already has permission to stream tonight’s game live over the Internet, throughout Iowa and anywhere else in the world.
That, Fox said “obviously denies Mediacom what it's really seeking -- the right to be the exclusive distributor of the game at the expense of every other broadcast, cable and satellite provider in Iowa. FSN has been fortunate to partner with the Big 12 Conference for roughly 15 years, and helped Iowa State to its rightful share of approximately $200 million. Mediacom’s claims are once again laughable, as we even made telecast rights to tonight’s game available to at least two other national sports networks – one of which is owned and operated by Comcast Cable – and neither chose to produce it.”
The Big Ten Network, which will offer fans 39 football games, regular-season basketball games, more than 55 women’s basketball games, Big Ten Championships, soccer, field hockey, volleyball, baseball, wrestling and other NCAA championship sports action, has carriage deals with DirecTV, AT&T’s U-Verse TV and 100 smaller Midwest cable and municipal providers.
But so far it has struck out in landing carriage deals with larger cable operators who have balked at the high fees – reported to be about $1.10 per subscriber per month – and its insistence that it be placed on the basic analog tier. To date, only one cable operator has agreed to carry the network – Insight Communications.
Mediacom has said that it wants to carry the Big Ten channel, but negotiations have been stymied over the price and placement of the network. Larsen said that Mediacom would be happy to carry the network on its basic tier if the price were lowered. If that was impossible, Mediacom would prefer to carry the network on its digital sports tier.
If this battle continues it would be the second major programming fight for Mediacom in Iowa, its largest market, in two years. In late 2006, Mediacom was embroiled in a months-long battle with broadcaster Sinclair Broadcasting Group over retransmission consent fees for Sinclair’s Iowa broadcast stations. That battle ended this February, although terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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