Fox: Comcast Punts Big Ten
By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 8/26/2007 8:00:00 PM
Fox Cable Networks and Comcast Cable last week engaged in a public relations blitz a week before the launch of the Big Ten Network.
Fox Cable Networks, which co-owns the Big Ten Network along with the 11-school conference, said Friday that Comcast has not played ball with Fox at the negotiating table for more than a month and most likely will not carry the service prior to its Aug. 30 launch.
Comcast executives say the cable operator has indeed negotiated with the network, but still believes the Big Ten Network should be offered on a sports tier.
The head-on collision between the two parties comes amid Wall Street analyst Paul Greenfield's prediction that cable operators within the Big Ten's seven Midwest states and Pennsylvania footprint could lose subscribers to DirecTV if they don't carry the service.
Fox National Cable Sports Networks president Bob Thompson told Multichannel News Friday that he's pessimistic about the possibility of securing a distribution deal with Comcast for the Big Ten Network, which currently has carriage deals with DirecTV and AT&T's U-verse TV, as well as 100 smaller Midwest cable operators.
Thompson said the operator has been unwilling to budge from its stance that the service should be carried on a sports tier. On the other hand, he said The Big Ten has been willing to negotiate rights fees — although he said Fox never pitched to Comcast the reported $1.10 per-subscriber licensing fee in core markets for the service. He would not give specifics on Comcast's rate.
“We're willing to negotiate on the [inner and outer market] rates and the carriage level in the outer market, the only thing we've stood hard and fast on is expanded basic within the inner markets,” Thompson said. “We haven't received a counter offer other than it has to be on a sports tier in over a month.”
Comcast Midwest Division president Bill Connors was quoted in last Friday's Chicago Tribune saying that he had a “meaningful conversation” with a Fox official as late as Wednesday.
But Thompson told Multichannel News that Fox “isn't negotiating with [Connors] as it relates to carriage — it's with Comcast in Philadelphia.” He added the The Big Ten Network was expected to launch a major advertising campaign in Comcast markets highlighting the operator's inability to reach a carriage deal for the service, and that subscribers need to make “alternative plans” to get the service.
Meanwhile, Pali Capital media analyst Richard Greenfield says the Big Ten battle could have negative consequences for cable operators, who could begin to lose subscribers to DirecTV.
In a report released last Thursday, Greenfield also said the Comcast's insistence on placing expensive sports content on sports tiers could play right into Federal Communications Commission arguments for a-la-carte programming options for consumers. “We believe it is a 'slippery slope' to keep asking/putting certain 'expensive programming' on tiers, while telling the government that mandated á la carte programming is bad for the cable industry (and even worse for most cable programming entities).”
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