Fans of Washington, Oregon, USC and UCLA thought their viewing headaches would end with the move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten.
Not so fast.
Huskies and Ducks fans who subscribe to Comcast might not be able to see their team’s openers on Saturday due to a carriage dispute with the Big Ten Network.
Comcast is blacking out live events involving the four new Big Ten schools in their home markets. The root of the problem is that Comcast wants to keep BTN on an expanded tier instead of basic while also not agreeing to pay the in-market rates with the four West Coast schools moving to the conference.
Oregon’s opener against Idaho is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. with Washington-Weber State kicking off at 8 p.m. USC and UCLA’s games will be nationally televised and not affected this weekend.
Comcast owns NBC, which has the conference’s Saturday Night package. However, Fox owns the majority of BTN.
The Big Ten said in a statement: “The Big Ten Network is proud to present an expanded slate of live sporting events featuring the newest members of the B1G conference. However, most Comcast subscribers will not see these games. As the one distribution partner that declined to expand along with us, Comcast Xfinity viewers in many areas will not have access to live broadcasts of the highly anticipated inaugural B1G season games for Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington.”
Comcast said in a statement that, “We’re sensitive to the impact these costs have on our customers and have been in discussions with Fox and the Big Ten Network to find a solution to make certain former Pac-12 games available to the people who want them while not forcing others to pay for content they don’t want to watch. We hope to be able to reach a fair agreement with Fox and the Big Ten Network to be able to offer these games to our customers.”
