Big Ten Network has exceeded expectations

CHICAGO - Just a few months after its first program aired in the late summer of 2007, the Big Ten Network was struggling to get on the major cable providers in the Midwest.

With the 2010 football season just a few weeks away, the network, at least to its critics, seemed to be one of the causes of the expansion shockwave that rocked college sports just a couple of months ago.

Ask president Mark Silverman, though, and he says the BTN is just like any other cable network.

"We've exceeded our expectations of what we've been able to do with programming," Silverman said Tuesday during the second day of the Big Ten

football media days. "We've come a long way in a few years. And we can still get better."

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- Story by By John Bohnenkamp, The Hawkeye Eye, read more from him here. Story was shared via the Associated Press.

When the network started, it was hard to watch the programming unless you were a DirecTV or Dish Network subscriber, or in one of the smaller systems inside the BTN's "footprint" of coverage.

Now, after securing agreements with the major Midwest cable providers just a few days before the kickoff of the 2008 football season, the BTN can be found on more than 90 percent of the cable systems in the conference's area.

And with the exception of a few smaller providers who haven't added the network, fans of Big Ten

schools in the Midwest can now see their teams play every football game on either the BTN, ABC or ESPN's networks and every men's basketball conference games on either the BTN, the ESPN networks and CBS.

The skepticism that came with the early months of the network has changed to other conferences now looking to make similar deals.

"I think we were the first," Silverman said. "Other conferences can learn off what we did. But it's not easy.

"Every conference has a unique set of realities. There are a whole set of issues for each different conference."

Since the BTN has caught on, the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conferences have negotiated new TV deals for more coverage and more revenue. The Big 12, now down to 10 teams, is negotiating new TV deals. And the Pac-10 is looking at forming a similar network to the Big Ten.

The BTN delivers approximately $6.5 million in revenue to each conference school each year. Advertising revenues for the network are expected to climb to more than $43 million in 2011, according to a study from SNL Kagan, a firm that specializes in the business of media and communications.

The network also has increased exposure for schools - it is available on cable systems in 19 of the top 20 TV markets in the nation and is available in approximately 75 million households.

As the Big Ten began looking into expansion, a move that eventually led to the addition of Nebraska beginning in 2011, there was speculation that the move was due in part to add to the BTN's reach, which would mean more subscribers and more revenue.

Silverman denied that the BTN played a role.

"I think adding a program of the scale and quality of a Nebraska does more to (the conference) than I think anyone can really put into a specific size of a specific market," Silverman said. "I mean, Nebraska is as big

ticket a football market nationally as there is. And being able to show Nebraska football games on our network is going to greatly increase the relevance of the network and the distribution of the network nationally over time, like few other schools would, in my opinion.

"So I think it's a much bigger additive element to the network than just adding a city that may have a couple hundred thousand more viewers, which given where we are today, that's not really what the goal is. The goal is to now create more of a national relevance for our games and for our teams."

Silverman said ratings last fall were 30 percent higher than the previous football season.

"People are going to turn to us more, and the expectations are higher," he said.

Heading into its fourth year, the BTN is adding more original programming.

One program that will debut this fall is "Icons", a show hosted by former ABC announcer Keith Jackson, a 20-show series counting down the top 50 "Icons" in Big Ten history.

"We're totally proud of that show," Silverman said. "When we had meetings to discuss who the top 50 icons were, there was so much discussion that those meetings would always go over the time we planned. We had a lot of fun with that."

Still, game coverage is the primary focus of the network.

"When you're a viewer, you're flipping back between a network like an ESPN and ABC and then us, and we have only been around for three years," Silverman said. "It's a high hurdle for us to live up to. And we've gotten better at it.

"We still have to make it a seamless transition, where a viewer really doesn't notice what network they're watching it on versus another network. We're not quite there. We're a big step up from where we've been. But we've got to get that done."

Asked what he thought about the BTN's growth, Silverman laughed.

"You don't notice it on a day-to-day basis," he said. "Now we're more of a traditional programming network. But when you hear and see the attention were getting, it still causes a brief hesitation, because you can't believe it.

"We've come a long way, and we've got a long way to go. But I never thought this was not going to work."