The Big Ten Network and Comcast remained locked in a carriage dispute Friday afternoon, placing the Oregon and Washington season openers at blackout risk on Comcast systems throughout the region.
“(Friday) is a big day in this negotiation,” Bob Thompson, the retired president of Fox Sports, noted on Twitter/X.
“Yes, there are a couple of games on Saturday but more importantly it is a holiday weekend. I can guarantee you that neither party wants to be on one endless zoom call!”
The Big Ten Network (BTN), which is owned by Fox, wants to be moved onto Comcast’s expanded basic tier on systems along the West Coast now that UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington have entered the conference.
Thus far, Comcast hasn’t budged.
As a result, even subscribers who have paid for BTN on a Comcast sports tier are unable to watch live events involving the four West Coast schools.
(Position on basic tiers allows programmers like BTN to charge distributors like Comcast a substantially higher subscriber rate.)
If the stalemate continues into Saturday, then Comcast subscribers in Portland, for example, will have access to the Purdue-Indiana State game on BTN but not Oregon’s opener against Idaho at 4:30 p.m.
And subscribers in Seattle won’t be able to watch the first game of the Jedd Fisch era as the Huskies host Weber State at 8 p.m..
If there is no deal by kickoff in Eugene, both games likely will be blacked out — and the dispute could continue for days, if not weeks.
(There are two games scheduled for Sept. 7 on BTN involving members of the West Coast quartet: Eastern Michigan at Washington and Utah State at USC.)
Earlier this week, the Big Ten Network released the following 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.
“If you are an Xfinity subscriber and cannot find the Ducks, Huskies, Bruins or Trojans on the Big Ten Network in your area, please contact 1-800-Comcast or go to ALLBTNGAMES.com.”
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