The Big Ten Network has decreed that the OSU Spring Game will not be shown live to the fans of the OSU Buckeyes.  Rather than being shown on WBNS TV as it has for the last six years, this year it will be shown only on the Big Ten Network, with the millions of OSU Buckeye Fans with Warner Cable left out in the cold.

The Big Ten Network spokesperson Elizabeth Conlisk said: 

“We have distribution partners in Columbus in Insight, WOW!, Direct TV and Dish TV.  To put that on over the air in Columbus, that is one of the key issues.  Then Time Warner would get that (as well) and they’re not a partner.”

The Big Ten Network is so concerned about the welfare of its partners that it will not allow those partners to show the game live.  Rather, it will be available only on tape delay to be played later that night.

The Ohio State University would rather the game be shown live.  OSU Administrator Steve Snapp asked the Big Ten Network to show the game live, but this request was denied.  Thus the welfare of the Ohio State University does not appear to be high on the list of the Big Ten Network’s priorities either.

Big Ten Network Spokesperson Conlisk explained:  “There’s eight games going on at exactly the same time and if we made the decision to broadcast the Ohio State game live and not any of the other ones…?” 

Apparently no one at the press conference asked why the Big Ten Network was so ill-equipped with television broadcast technology that they could not air the eight games on different channels, allowing the consumer to choose.  No one asked why the games could not be shown locally in the geographic areas in which the universities are located.  No one asked what will happen when Michigan plays at the same time as OSU this fall.  Will both games be shown on tape delay?  Perhaps the Big Ten Network might pull the press passes of such reporters.

With such bumbling leadership at the Big Ten Network, it is unclear what its priorities are. 

But it has become crystal clear exactly what the Big Ten Network’s priorities are not.  They don’t care about the fans; they don’t care about their distribution partners who for some strange reason would like to show athletic events live; and they don’t care about the universities in the Big Ten.

And they don’t care about the homeless and hungry either, as you will see in the next article.

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