No Iowa-UNI football on Dish after deal expires

After two weeks of working on temporary agreements, BTN and Dish Network failed to reach a long-term deal Friday night.

Saturday, the satellite provider pulled the plug on BTN after five years of carriage.

Iowa's next three games -- including today's in-state tilt with Northern Iowa -- are scheduled to air on BTN. Dish subscribers will be unable to watch those games.

"As of September 14

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, BTN's distribution agreement with Dish expired despite our best efforts to finalize an agreement," BTN said in a statement. "We are disappointed that Dish does not see the value in the network in the same way that so many of their customers do, including Big Ten students, alumni, fans and viewers across the country who continue to pay Dish for a channel they no longer receive."

The sides apparently reached a deal last week but that fell through as negotiations continued.

"Big Ten Network and Dish have come together to reach an agreement in principle for Dish to continue carrying BTN," according to last week's BTN release. We expect to finalize a long-term agreement soon and we thank fans for their patience."

Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta released a statement Saturday morning about the impasse:

“I was extremely disappointed to learn this morning that an agreement had not been finalized.  To be clear, the Big Ten Network is producing live coverage of today's football game at historic Kinnick Stadium and seven other games featuring Big Ten teams, and is making all eight of these games available to millions of fans via hundreds of television providers across the country including, in the state of Iowa, Mediacom, Direct TV, and dozens of other cable television providers.

“The University of Iowa does not have a seat at the negotiation table.  We do completely support BTN's efforts and know that an agreement is possible because BTN has successfully reached agreements with all major television providers in the Big Ten geographic footprint except one:  Dish Network.

“BTN is currently celebrating its five-year anniversary and has firmly established itself as one of the leading sports television networks in the country.”